Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble.
23. thy foot shall not stumble ] Lit. thou shalt not dash thy foot, R.V. margin. Comp. Psa 91:12, where “against a stone” is added.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Walk in thy way; manage all thy employments and concerns.
Safely, or securely, or confidently, without danger or fear; casting thy care upon God in the discharge of thy duty.
Shall not stumble at those stumbling-blocks and temptations at which heedless sinners commonly stumble and fall. Thou shalt thereby be kept from falling into sin, and that mischief which generally attends upon it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Then shall thou walk in thy way safely,…. In the way of thy duty and business, without fear of any enemy; having in sight the Captain of salvation gone before, and walking in such ways of pleasantness and peace as Wisdom’s are; and having such a lamp to the feet, and such a light unto the paths, as the Gospel and its doctrines be;
and thy foot shall not stumble; at the word and the truths of it, as some men do, being thereunto appointed; and at Christ, the stumbling stone laid in Zion, particularly at his justifying righteousness; see 1Pe 2:8.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
But more than this, wisdom makes its possessor in all situations of life confident in God:
23 Then shalt thou go thy way with confidence,
And thy foot shall not stumble.
24 When thou liest down, thou are not afraid,
But thou layest thyself down and hast sweet sleep.
25 Thou needest not be afraid of sudden alarm,
Nor for the storm of the wicked when it breaketh forth.
26 For Jahve will be thy confidence
And keep thy foot from the snare.
The (cf. our “ bei guter Laune ” = in good cheer), with of the condition, is of the same meaning as the conditional adverbial accusative , Pro 10:9; Pro 1:33. Pro 3:23 the lxx translate , while, on the contrary, at Psa 91:12 they make the person the subject ( … ); here also we retain more surely the subject from 23a, especially since for the intrans. of (to smite, to push) a Hithpa. is used Jer 13:16. In Pro 3:24 there is the echo of Job 11:18, and in Pro 3:25 of Job 5:21. Pro 3:24 is altogether the same as Job 5:24: et decumbes et suavis erit somnus tuus = si decubueris, suavis erit . The hypothetic perf., according to the sense, is both there and at Job 11:18 (cf. Jer 20:9) oxytoned as perf. consec. Similar examples are Pro 6:22; Gen 33:13; 1Sa 25:31, cf. Ewald, 357a. (of sleep as Jer 31:26) is from , which in Hebr. is used of pleasing impressions, as the Arab. ariba of a lively, free disposition. , somnus ( nom. actionis from , with the ground-form sina preserved in the Arab. lidat , vid., Job, p. 284, note), agrees in inflexion with , annus . , Pro 3:25, denies, like Psa 121:3, with emphasis: be afraid only not = thou hast altogether nothing to fear. Schultens rightly says: Subest species prohibitionis et tanquam abominationis, ne tale quicquam vel in suspicionem veniat in mentemve cogitando admittatur . here means terror, as Pro 1:26., the terrific object; (with the accus. om ) is the virtual genitive, as Pro 26:2 (with accus. am ). Regarding , see under Pro 1:27. The genitive may be, after Psa 37:18, the genit. subjecti, but still it lies nearer to say that he who chooses the wisdom of God as his guiding star has no ground to fear punishment as transgressors have reason to fear it; the is meant which wisdom threatens against transgressors, Pro 1:27. He needs have no fear of it, for wisdom is a gift of God, and binds him who receives it to the giver: Jahve becomes and is henceforth his confidence. Regarding essentiae, which expresses the closest connection of the subject with the predicate which it introduces, see under Psa 35:2. As here, so also at Exo 18:4; Psa 118:7; Psa 146:6, the predicate is a noun with a pronominal suffix. is, as at Psa 78:7; Job 31:24, cognate to and ,
(Note: According to Malbim, is the expectation of good, and , confidence in the presence of evil.)
the object and ground of confidence. That the word in other connections may mean also fool-hardiness, Psa 49:14, and folly, Ecc 7:25 (cf. regarding , which in Arab. as beld denotes the dull, in Hebr. fools, see under Pro 1:22), it follows that it proceeds from the fundamental conception of fulness of flesh and of fat, whence arise the conceptions of dulness and slothfulness, as well as of confidence, whether confidence in self or in God (see Schultens l.c., and Wnsche’s Hosea, p. 207f.). is taking, catching, as in a net or trap or pit, from , to catch (cf. Arab. lakida , to fasten, III, IV to hold fast); another root-meaning, in which Arab. lak connects itself with nak , nk , to strike, to assail (whence al – lakdat , the assault against the enemy, Deutsch. Morgenl. Zeitsch. xxii. 140), is foreign to the Hebr. Regarding the of , Fleischer remarks: “The after the verbs of guarding, preserving, like and , properly expresses that one by those means holds or seeks to hold a person or thing back from something, like the Lat. defendere, tueri aliquem ab hostibus, a perculo .”
(Note: Hitzig rejects Pro 3:22-26 as a later interpolation. And why? Because chap. 3, which he regards as a complete discourse, consists of twice ten verses beginning with . In addition to this symmetry other reasons easily reveal themselves to his penetration. But the discourses contained in chap. 1-9 do not all begin with ( vid., Pro 1:20); and when it stands in the beginning of the discourse, it is not always the first word ( vid., Pro 1:8); and when it occurs as the first word or in the first line, it does not always commence a new discourse ( vid., Pro 1:15 in the middle of the first, Pro 3:11 in the middle of the fourth); and, moreover, the Hebr. poetry and oratory does not reckon according to verses terminated by Soph Pasuk, which are always accented distichs, but they in reality frequently consist of three or more lines. The rejected verses are in nothing unlike those that remain, and which are undisputed; they show the same structure of stichs, consisting for the most part of three, but sometimes also only of two words (cf. Pro 3:22 with Pro 1:9, Pro 1:10), the same breadth in the course of the thoughts, and the same accord with Job and Deuteronomy.)
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
23. Then shalt thou walk safely “Then the journey of thy life shall be safe and smooth.” Stuart.
Pro 3:23 Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble.
Ver. 23. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely. ] Fiducialiter, saith the Vulgate – confidently and securely. Every malvoy shall be a salvoy to thee: thou shalt ever go under a double guard, the “peace of God” within thee, Php 4:7 and the “power of God” without thee. 1Pe 1:5 “Thou shalt be in league also with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.” Job 5:23
Pro 2:8, Pro 4:12, Pro 10:9, Psa 37:23, Psa 37:24, Psa 37:31, Psa 91:11, Psa 121:3, Psa 121:8, Zec 10:12
Reciprocal: Gen 7:16 – the Psa 91:5 – terror Psa 91:12 – lest Pro 6:22 – General Joh 11:9 – he stumbleth not
Pro 3:23. Then shalt thou walk in thy way Manage all thy employments and concerns safely, securely, or confidently, without danger or fear, casting thy care on God, in the discharge of thy duty. And thy foot shall not stumble At those stumbling-blocks, trials, and temptations, at which heedless sinners commonly stumble, and by which they fall. Thy natural life, and all that belongs to it, shall be under the protection of Gods providence; thy spiritual life, and all its interests, under the protection of his grace; so that thou shalt be kept from falling into sin or trouble. Wisdom shall direct thee into and keep thee in the right way, as far as may be from temptation, and will enable thee to walk in it with holy security, and thou shalt find the way of duty to be the way of safety.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments