Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary

5 The striving of the diligent is only to advantage. And hastening all [excessive haste] only to loss; or in other words, and agreeably to the Heb. construction: The thoughts of the industrious are (reach) only to gain, And every one who hastens - it (this his hastening) is only to loss. Vid., at Pro 17:21. At Pro 10:4, Luther translates "the hand of the diligent," here "the plans of an expert [endelichen]," i.e., of one actively striving (Pro 22:29, endelich = מהיר) to the end. The אץ, hastening overmuch, is contrasted with the diligent: Luther well: but he who is altogether too precipitant. Everywhere else in the Proverbs אץ has a closer definition with it, wherefore Hitzig reads אצר, which must mean: he who collects together; but אץ along with חרוץ is perfectly distinct. The thought is the same as our "eile mit Weile" [= festina lente], and Goethe's Wie das Gestirn ohne Hast, Aber ohne Rast Drehe sich jeder Um die eigne Last. "Like the stars, without haste but without rest, let every one carry about his own burden," viz., of his calling that lies upon him. The fundamental meaning of אוץ is to throng, to urge (Exo 5:13), here of impatient and inconsiderate rashness. While on the side of the diligent there is nothing but gain, such haste brings only loss; over-exertion does injury, and the work will want care, circumspection, and thoroughness. In the Book of Proverbs, the contrasts "gain" and "loss" frequently occur, Pro 11:24; Pro 14:23; Pro 22:16 : profit (the increase of capital by interest), opp. loss (of capital, or of part thereof), as commercial terms.