Sprueche 18:11

11 Das Vermögen des Reichen ist seine feste Stadt, und in seiner Einbildung gleich einer hochragenden Mauer.

Sprueche 18:11 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 18:11

The rich man's wealth [is] his strong city
In which he dwells, over which he presides; in which he places his trust and confidence, and thinks himself safe from every enemy and from all trouble: as one ^F19 observes,

``the abundance of a rich man's wealth he conceives to be as it were the abundance of people in a "city"; the telling of his money he imagines to be the walking of people up and down the streets; his bags standing thick together to be so many houses standing close one to the other; his iron barred chests to be so mary bulwarks; his bonds and bills to be his cannons and demi-cannons, his great ordinance; and in the midst of these he thinketh himself environed with a "great wall", which no trouble is able to leap over, which no misery is able to break through.''

As it follows; and as a high wall in his own conceit:
which not only separates and distinguishes him from others; but, as he imagines, will secure him from all dangers, and will be abiding, lasting, and durable: but all this is only "in his own conceit", or "imagery" ^F20; in the chambers of his imagery, as Jarchi, referring to ( Ezekiel 8:12 ) ; where the same word is used; for this wall shall not stand; these riches cannot secure themselves, they take wing and fly away; and much less the owner of them, not from public calamities, nor from personal diseases of body, nor from death, nor from wrath to come.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F19 Jermin its loc.
F20 (wtykvmb) "in imaginatione ejus", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator, Cocceius, Gejerus, Schultens; "in imagine sua", Mercerus.

Sprueche 18:11 In-Context

9 Auch wer sich lässig zeigt in seiner Arbeit, ist ein Bruder des Verderbers.

10 Der Name Jehovas ist ein starker Turm; der Gerechte läuft dahin und ist in Sicherheit.

11 Das Vermögen des Reichen ist seine feste Stadt, und in seiner Einbildung gleich einer hochragenden Mauer.

12 Vor dem Sturze wird hoffärtig des Mannes Herz, und der Ehre geht Demut voraus.

13 Wer Antwort gibt, bevor er anhört, dem ist es Narrheit und Schande.