but If with R.V. we retain but, we must understand desirein the first clause in a good sense, as in Proverbs 13:12: q.d. in spite of the sweetness of good desires accomplished, fools will not forsake evil to attain to it. Balaam's desire, "let me die the death of the righteous" (Numbers 23:10), would have been "sweet to his soul" in its accomplishment, but it was abomination to him to depart from "the wages of unrighteousness." (2 Peter 2:15.)

Some, however, would understand the first clause as assigning a reason for what is stated in the second: Because the desire accomplished, &c., therefore it is abomination to fools to depart from the evil on which their heart is set.

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