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Verse 35
This group of the proverbs of wisdom now suitably closes with the fundamental contrast between the wise and fools: The wise shall inherit honour, But fools carry away shame. If we take וּכסילים as the object, then we can scarcely interpret the clause: shame sweeps fools away (Umbreit, Zöckler, Bertheau), for הרים [Hiph. of רוּם] signifies (Isa 57:14; Eze 21:31) “to raise up anything high and far,” not “to sweep away.” Preferable is the rendering: τοὺς δ ̓ ἄφρονας ὑψοῖ ἀτιμία (Graec. Venet., and similarly Jerome), i.e., only to it do they owe their celebrity as warning examples (Ewald), to which Oetinger compares “whose glory is in their shame,” Phi 3:19; but קלון is the contrary of כּבוד (glory, Hab 2:16), and therefore is as much an object conception as is the latter, 35a. If it is the object, then if we take מרים from מר after the form of לן, Neh 13:21 = ממירים (Hos 4:7), it might be rendered: Yet fools exchange shame (Löwenstein). But מוּר, like the Arab. mrr, transire, means properly to pass over or to wander over; it is intransitive, and only in Hiph. signifies actively to exchange. מרים thus will be the participle of הרים; the plur. taken distributively (fools = whoever is only always a fool) is connected with the singular of the predicate. This change in the number is here, however, more difficult than at Pro 3:18, and in other places, where the plur. of the part. permits the resolution into a relative clause with quicunque, and more difficult than at Pro 28:1, where the sing. of the predicate is introduced by attraction; wherefore מרים may be an error in transcribing for מרימים or מרימי (Böttcher). J. H. Michaelis (after the Targ. and Syr.) has properly rendered the clause: “stulti tollunt ignominiam tanquam portionem suam,” adding “quae derivato nomine תרומהdicitur.” הרים signifies, in the language of the sacrificial worship and of worship generally, to lift off from anything the best portion, the legitimate portion due to God and the priesthood (vid., at Pro 3:9); for which reason Rashi glosses מרים by מפרישׁ לו, and Ralbag by מגביה לו. See Pro 14:29. Honour is that which the wise inherit, it falls to them unsought as a possession, but fools receive shame as the offal (viz., of their foolish conduct). The fut. and part. are significantly interchanged. The life of the wise ends in glory, but