The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.
Stripes that wound cleanse away evil; And strokes reach the innermost parts.
The bandages of a wound thou removest with the evil, Also the plagues of the inner parts of the heart!
Wounding stripes purge away evil, and strokes [purge] the inner parts of the belly.
Proverbs — Gnomic wisdom — sayings, instructions, and the binary of wisdom vs. folly. Fear of the LORD as the integrative theme; the virtuous woman of Prov 31 as the book's closing portrait of wisdom embodied.
Voices3
The sick are to be admonished to consider how great a boon is bodily affliction, which both washes away committed sins and restrains those which might have been committed, which inflicts on the troubled mind wounds of penitence derived from outward stripes. Whence it is written, "The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil, and stripes in the secret parts of the belly." For the blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil, because the pain of scourges cleanses iniquities, whether meditated or perpetrated. But by the appellation of belly the mind is wont to be understood.
Gregory the Dialogist· The Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 3, 604patristic
The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil,....
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed
The blueness of a wound - חברות chabburoth, from חבר chabar, to unite, to join together. Does it not refer to the cicatrice of a wound when, in its healing, the two lips are brought topether? By this union the wound is healed; and by the previous discharge the lace-rated ends of fibres and blood-vessels are purged away. So stripes, though they hurt for the time, become the means of correcting and discharging the moral evil of the inmost soul, the vice of the heart, the easily-besetting sin.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832evangelical
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The verses this one reaches6
Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness.
The spirit of a man is the lamp of the LORD, searching out his inmost being.
Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
Strike a mocker, and the simple will beware; rebuke the discerning man, and he will gain knowledge.
But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
Therefore Jacob’s guilt will be atoned for, and the full fruit of the removal of his sin will be this: When he makes all the altar stones like crushed bits of chalk, no Asherah poles or incense altars will remain standing.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Isaiah 53:5But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
leads to
He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit,
just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
For at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
Through
Hebrews 12:10Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness.
leads to
Through these He has given us His precious and magnificent promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, now that you have escaped the corruption in the world caused…
Through
Proverbs 22:15Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
leads to
He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.
A rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother.
The whole web at once: see the Arc.
