C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch on Proverbs 23:15-16

Pro 23:15-16

The following proverb passes from the educator to the pupil: 15 My son, if thine heart becometh wise,      My heart also in return will rejoice; 16 And my reins will exult      If thy lips speak right things.

Wisdom is inborn in no one. A true Arab. proverb says, “The wise knows how the fool feels, for he himself was also once a fool;”The second part of the saying is, “But a fool knows not how a wise man feels, for he has never been a wise man.” I heard this many years ago, from the mouth of the American missionary Schaufler, in Constantinople. and folly is bound up in the heart of a child, according to Pro 22:15, which must be driven out by severe discipline. 15b, as many others, cf. Pro 22:19, shows that these “words of the wise” are penetrated by the subjectivity of an author; the author means: if thy heart becomes wise, so will mine in return, i.e., corresponding to it (cf. גּם, Gen 20:6), rejoice. The thought of the heart in Pro 23:15 repeats itself in Pro 23:16, with reference to the utterance of the mouth. Regarding מישׁרים, vid., Pro 1:5. Regarding the “reins,” כּליות (perhaps from כּלה, to languish, Job 19:21), with which the tender and inmost affections are connected, vid., Psychologie, p. 268f.