Proverbs 12:14

12:14 A person will be satisfied with good from the fruit of his words, ¹ 

and the work of his hands ²  will be rendered to ³  him.

Proverbs 19:23

19:23 Fearing the Lord ⁴  leads ⁵  to life, ⁶ 

and one who does so will live ⁷  satisfied; he will not be afflicted ⁸  by calamity.

Proverbs 28:19

28:19 The one who works his land will be satisfied with food, ⁹ 

but whoever chases daydreams ¹⁰  will have his fill ¹¹  of poverty.

Proverbs 30:9

30:9 lest I become satisfied and act deceptively ¹² 

and say, “Who is the Lord?”

Or lest I become poor and steal

and demean ¹³  the name of my God.

---

¹ tn Heb “fruit of the lips.” The term “fruit” is the implied comparison, meaning what is produced; and “lips” is the metonymy of cause, referring to speech. Proper speech will result in good things.

² tn Heb “the work of the hands of a man.”

³ tc The Kethib has the Qal imperfect, “will return” to him (cf. NASB); the Qere preserves a Hiphil imperfect, “he/one will restore/render” to him (cf. KJV, ASV). The Qere seems to suggest that someone (God or people) will reward him in kind. Since there is no expressed subject, it may be translated as a passive voice.

⁴ tn Heb “the fear of the Lord.” This expression features an objective genitive: “fearing the Lord.”

⁵ tn The term “leads” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and style.

⁶ tn Here “life” is probably a metonymy of subject for “blessings and prosperity in life.” The plural form often covers a person’s “lifetime.”

⁷ tn The subject of this verb is probably the one who fears the Lord and enjoys life. So the proverb uses synthetic parallelism; the second half tells what this life is like – it is an abiding contentment that is not threatened by calamity (cf. NCV “unbothered by trouble”).

⁸ tn Heb “he will not be visited” (so KJV, ASV). The verb פָּקַד (paqad) is often translated “visit.” It describes intervention that will change the destiny. If God “visits” it means he intervenes to bless or to curse. To be “visited by trouble” means that calamity will interfere with the course of life and change the direction or the destiny. Therefore this is not referring to a minor trouble that one might briefly experience. A life in the Lord cannot be disrupted by such major catastrophes that would alter one’s destiny.

⁹ tn Or “will have plenty of food” (Heb “bread”); so NAB, NASB, NCV.

¹⁰ tn Heb “empty things” or “vain things”; NRSV “follows worthless pursuits.”

sn Prosperity depends on diligent work and not on chasing empty dreams. The proverb is essentially the same as Prov 12:11 except for the last expression.

¹¹ tn The repetition of the verb strengthens the contrast. Both halves of the verse use the verb יִשְׂבַּע (yisba’, “will be satisfied; will be filled with; will have enough”). It is positive in the first colon, but negative in the second – with an ironic twist to say one is “satisfied” with poverty.

¹² tn The verb כָּחַשׁ (kakhash) means “to be disappointing; to deceive; to fail; to grow lean.” In the Piel stem it means “to deceive; to act deceptively; to cringe; to disappoint.” The idea of acting deceptively is illustrated in Hos 9:2 where it has the connotation of “disowning” or “refusing to acknowledge” (a meaning very close to its meaning here).

¹³ tn The Hebrew verb literally means “to take hold of; to seize”; this produces the idea of doing violence to the reputation of God.