The figures of paradise in Proverbs 13:12 and Proverbs 13:14 require us to take along with them the intermediate verse (Proverbs 13:13).

12 Deferred waiting maketh the heart sick,

     And a tree of life is a wish accomplished.

Singularly the lxx Κρείσσων ἐναρχόμενος βοηθῶν καρδίᾳ, followed by the Syr. (which the Targ. Transcribes):

(Note: That the Targum of the Proverbs is a Jewish elaboration of the Peshito text, vid., Nldeke in Merx' Archiv, Bd. ii. pp. 246-49.)

Better is he who begins to help than he who remains in hesitating expectation, by which תחלת is doubled, and is derived once from הוחיל, to wait, and the second time from החל, to begin. If the lxx, with its imitators, deteriorates to such a degree proverbs so clear, beautiful, and inviolable, what may one expect from it in the case of those not easily understood! משּׁך signifies also, Isaiah 18:2, to be widely extended (cf. Arab. meshaḳ), here in the sense of time, as נמשׁך, to prolong, Isaiah 13:22, and post-bibl. משׁך הזּמן, the course of time. Regarding תּוחלת, vid., at Proverbs 10:28, where as Proverbs 11:27 תּקות, here תּאוה, as also Psalm 78:29 of the object of the wish, and with בוא in the sense of being fulfilled (cf. Joshua 21:43), as there with הביא in the sense of accomplishing or performing. Extended waiting makes the heart sick, causes heart-woe (מחלה, part. fem. Hiph. of חלה, to be slack, feeble, sick; R. חל, to loosen, to make loose); on the contrary, a wish that has been fulfilled is a tree of life (cf. p. 23), of a quickening and strengthening influence, like that tree of paradise which was destined to renew and extend the life of man.

Proverbs 13:18 Parallel Commentaries

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