C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch on Proverbs 8:17-21

Pro 8:17-21

The discourse of Wisdom makes a fresh departure, as at Pro 8:13 : she tells how, to those who love her, she repays this love: 17 “I love them that love me,      And they that seek me early find me. 18 Riches and honour are with me,      Durable riches and righteousness. 19 Better is my fruit than pure and fine gold,      And my revenue (better) than choice silver. 20 In the way of righteousness do I walk,      In the midst of the paths of justice. 21 To give an inheritance to them that love me      And I fill their treasuries.”

The Chethı̂b אהביה (ego hos qui eam amant redamo), Gesenius, Lehrgeb. §196, 5, regards as a possible synallage (eam = me), but one would rather think that it ought to be read (יהוה =) 'אהבי ה. The ancients all have the reading אהבי. אהב (= אאהב, with the change of the éě into ê, and the compression of the radical א; cf. אמר, תּבא, Pro 1:10) is the form of the fut. Kal, which is inflected תּאהבוּ, Pro 1:22. Regarding שׁחר (the Graec. Venet. well: οἱ ὀρθρίζοντές μοι), vid., Pro 1:28, where the same epenthet. fut. form is found.