Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary

This series of proverbs now turns from the fool to the separatist: The separatist seeketh after his own pleasure; Against all that is beneficial he showeth his teeth. The reflexive נפרד has here the same meaning as the Rabbinical פּרשׁ מן־הצּבּוּר, to separate oneself from the congregation, Aboth ii. 5; נפרד denotes a man who separates himself, for he follows his own counsel, Arab. mnfrd (mtfrrd) brâyh, or jḥys almḥḥl (seorsum ab aliis secedens). Instead of לתּאוה, Hitzig, after Jerome, adopts the emendation לתאנה, "after an occasion" (a pretext), and by נפרד thinks of one pushed aside, who, thrown into opposition, seeks to avenge himself. But his translation of 1b, "against all that is fortunate he gnasheth his teeth," shows how much the proverb is opposed to this interpretation. נפרד denotes one who willingly (Jdg 4:11), and, indeed, obstinately withdraws himself. The construction of יבקּשׁ with ל (also Job 10:6) is explained by this, that the poet, giving prominence to the object, would set it forward: a pleasure (תאוה, as Arab. hawan, unstable and causeless direction of the mind to something, pleasure, freak, caprice), and nothing else, he goes after who has separated himself (Fl.); the effort of the separatist goes out after a pleasure, i.e., the enjoyment and realization of such; instead of seeking to conform himself to the law and ordinance of the community, he seeks to carry out a separate view, and to accomplish some darling plan: libidinem sectatur sui cerebri homo. With this 1b accords. תּוּשׁיּה (vid., at Pro 2:7) is concretely that which furthers and profits. Regarding התגּלּע, vid., at Pro 17:14. Thus putting his subjectivity in the room of the common weal, he shows his teeth, places himself in fanatical opposition against all that is useful and profitable in the principles and aims, the praxis of the community from which he separates himself. The figure is true to nature: the polemic of the schismatic and the sectary against the existing state of things, is for the most part measureless and hostile.