3:15 She is more precious than rubies,
and none of the things 1 you desire 2 can compare 3 with her. 4
3:18 She is like 5 a tree of life 6 to those who obtain her, 7
and everyone who grasps hold of her will be blessed. 8
21:2 All of a person’s ways seem right in his own opinion, 9
but the Lord evaluates 10 the motives. 11
21:20 There is desirable treasure and olive oil 12 in the dwelling of the wise,
but a foolish person 13 devours all he has. 14
1 tn Heb “all of your desires cannot compare with her.”
2 tn Heb “your desires.” The 2nd person masculine singular suffix on the noun probably functions as subjective genitive.
3 tn The imperfect tense verb יָסַד (yasad, “to establish be like; to resemble”) has a potential nuance here: “can be compared with.”
4 tn Heb “All of your desires do not compare with her.”
5 tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.
6 sn The metaphor compares wisdom to the symbol of vitality and fullness of life. This might be an allusion to Gen 3:22, suggesting that what was lost as a result of the Fall may be recovered through wisdom: long and beneficial life (R. Marcus, “The Tree of Life in Proverbs,” JBL 62 [1943]: 117-20).
7 tn Heb “lay hold of her.”
8 tn The singular participle מְאֻשָּׁר (mÿ’ushar, literally, “he will be blessed”) functions as a distributive singular for a plural subject (GKC 464 §145.l): “each and everyone will be blessed.” Not recognizing this point of syntax, the BHS editors unnecessarily suggest emending this singular form to the plural.
9 tn Heb “in his own eyes.” The term “eyes” is a metonymy for estimation, opinion, evaluation.
10 tn Heb “weighs” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “examines”; NCV, TEV “judges.”
11 tn Heb “the hearts.” The term לֵב (lev, “heart”) is used as a metonymy of association for thoughts and motives (BDB 660-61 s.v. 6-7). Even though people think they know themselves, the
12 tn The mention of “olive oil” (שֶׁמֶן, shemen) is problematic in the line – how can a fool devour it? Several attempts have been made to alleviate the problem. The NIV interprets “treasure” as “choice food,” so that food and oil would make more sense being swallowed. C. H. Toy (Proverbs [ICC], 406) suggests dropping “oil” altogether based on the reading in the LXX, but the Greek is too general for any support: It has “precious treasure will rest on the mouth of the sage.” W. McKane wants to change “oil” to an Arabic word “expensive” to read “desirable and rare wealth” (Proverbs [OTL], 552), but this idea does not match the metaphor any better. The figure of “devouring” in the second line simply means the fool uses up whatever he has.
13 tn Heb “a fool of a man.”
14 tn Heb “he swallows it.” The imagery compares swallowing food with consuming one’s substance. The fool does not prepare for the future.