C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch on Proverbs 21:30
Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. Browse this work.
Read Proverbs 21. Compare commentaries on this chapter.
Source and publication rights
Public domain. Public Domain. Source edition.
Berean Blue opens December 1, 2026. Explore this passage in the app preview.
Proverbs21:30
Pro 21:30 30 No wisdom and no understanding, And no counsel is there against Jahve.
The expression might also be 'לפני ה; but the predominating sense would then be, that no wisdom appears to God as such, that He values none as such. With לנגד the proverb is more objective: there is no wisdom which, compared with His, can be regarded as such (cf. 1Co 3:19), none which can boast itself against Him, or can at all avail against Him (לנגד, as Dan 10:12; Neh. 3:37); whence it follows (as Job 28:28) that the wisdom of man consists in the fear of God the Alone-wise, or, which is the same thing, the All-wise. Immanuel interprets חכמה of theology, תּבוּנה of worldly science, עצה of politics; but חכמה is used of the knowledge of truth, i.e., of that which truly is and continues; תבונה of criticism, and עצה of system and method; vid., at Pro 1:2; Pro 8:14, from which latter passage the lxx has substituted here גבורה instead of תבונה. Instead of 'לנגד ה it translates πρὸς τὸν ἀσεβῆ, i.e., for that which is 'נגד ה against Jahve.
C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, Proverbs 21:30. Public domain.
Permanent link. Source edition.