잠언 31:3의 유대 사상

The second division applies to cases where one crosses the border of the sufficient to the domain of the superfluous which one has no need for, such as excess in food and drink, against which the sage warned us when he said, "Be not among winebibbers; among gluttonous eaters of meat" (Mishlei 23:20). So, too, extravagance in personal adornment, dress, luxurious homes, and superfluity in speech, in regard to which there is no assurance that one will not stumble because of them, as the wise man said, "In the multitude of words there lacks not sin" (Mishlei 10:19). Furthermore, excess in sexual relations, concerning which the sage said, ". . .He that keeps company with harlots destroys his substance" (Mishlei 29:3), and "do not give your strength to women" (Mishlei 31:3). It is also said concerning kings, "Neither shall he multiply wives unto himself" (Devarim 17:17).

Among them what Shlomo said: "Be not among wine-bibbers; among gluttonous eaters of flesh" (Mishlei 23:20), and "A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to lie" (Mishlei 6:10), and what the mother of Lemuel said: "Do not give your strength to women, nor your ways to the pleasures of kings; It is not for kings, Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, neither is strong drink for rulers; Lest he drink and forget what was decreed" (Mishlei 31:3-5).

Solomon has expatiated in the book of Proverbs on sluggards and their indolence, by which he figuratively refers to indolence in the search after wisdom. He thus speaks of a man who desires to know the final results, but does not exert himself to understand the preliminary disciplines which lead to them, doing nothing else but desire. “The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour. He coveteth greedily all the day long: but the righteous giveth, and spareth not” (Prov. 21:25, 26); that is to say, if the desire killeth the slothful, it is because he neglects to seek the thing which might satisfy his desire, he does nothing but desire, and hopes to obtain a thing without using the means to reach it. It would be better for him were he without that desire. Observe how the end of the simile throws light on its beginning. It concludes with the words “but the righteous giveth, and spareth not”; the antithesis of “righteous” and “slothful” can only be justified on the basis of our interpretation. Solomon thus indicates that only such a man is righteous who gives to everything its due portion; that is to say, who gives to the study of a thing the whole time required for it, and does not devote any part of that time to another purpose. The passage may therefore be paraphrased thus: “And the righteous man devotes his ways to wisdom, and does not withhold any of them.” Comp. “Give not thy strength unto women” (Prov. 31:3).