From the early Church Fathers to now.
1 Patristic · 1 Jewish · 1 Catholic · 1 Reformed · 1 Lutheran
“The messenger of the wicked shall fall into mischief: but a faithful ambassador is health.”
“"The messenger of the wicked falls into trouble." He refers to Arius and Sabellius, and other angels, that is, messengers of Satan, who, because they neglected the counsel of the divine Scriptures, fell into the trouble of hellish torments. "But the faithful envoy is health." That is, every Catholic preacher acquires eternal health for himself and his listeners.”
“A wicked messenger falls into evil like Balaam, to whom the Holy One, blessed be He, said (Num. 22:35): “Go with the men,” but he dealt wickedly to entice Balak to follow his evil counsel; therefore, he fell by the sword. but a faithful emissary brings healing This is Moses, our teacher.”
“Of the. Hebrew, “a wicked ambassador.” A king generally chooses people like himself. (Menochius) — Septuagint have read melec. “A rash king shall,” &c.”
“A wicked--or, "unfaithful" messenger falleth into mischief--or, "by mischief," or "evil," and so his errand fails. Contrasted is the character of the faithful, whose faithfulness benefits others.”
“17 A godless messenger falls into trouble; But a faithful messenger is a cordial. The traditional text, which the translations also give (except Jerome, nuntius impii, and leaving out of view the lxx, which makes of Pro 13:17 a history of a foolhardy king and a wise messenger), has not מלאך, but מלאך; the Masora places the word along with המלאך, Gen 48:16. And יפל is likewise testified to by all translators; they all read it as Kal, as the traditional text punctuates it; Luther alone departs from this and translates the Hiph.: "a godless messenger bringeth misfortune." Indeed, this conj. יפּל presses itself forward; and even though one read יפּל, the sense intended by virtue of the parallelism could be no other than that a godless messenger, because no blessing rests on his godlessness, stumbles into disaster, and draws him who gave the commission along with him. The connection מלאך רשׁע is like אדם רשׁע, Pro 11:7 (cf. the fem. of this adj., Eze 3:18). Instead of בּרע is בּרעה, Pro 17:20; Pro 28:14, parallels (cf. also Pro 11:5) which the punctuators may have had in view in giving the preference to Kal. With מלאך, from לאך, R. לך, to make to go = to send, is interchanged ציר, from צוּר, to turn, whence to journey (cf. Arab. ṣar, to become, to be, as the vulg. "to be to Dresden = to journey" is used). The connection ציר אמוּנים (cf. the more simple ציר נאמן, Pro 25:13) is like Pro 14:15, עד אמונים; the pluralet. means faithfulness in the full extent of the idea. Regarding מרפּא, the means of healing, here to strength, refreshment, vid., Pro 4:22; Pro 12:18.”
The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.