3:26 for the Lord will be 1 the source of your confidence, 2
and he will guard your foot 3 from being caught in a trap. 4
14:2 The one who walks in his uprightness fears the Lord, 5
but the one who is perverted in his ways 6 despises him.
15:3 The eyes of the Lord 7 are in every place,
keeping watch 8 on those who are evil and those who are good.
16:20 The one who deals wisely 9 in a matter 10 will find success, 11
and blessed 12 is the one who trusts in the Lord. 13
17:15 The one who acquits the guilty and the one who condemns the innocent 14 –
both of them are an abomination to the Lord. 15
18:10 The name of the Lord 16 is like 17 a strong tower; 18
the righteous person runs 19 to it and is set safely on high. 20
19:21 There are many plans 21 in a person’s mind, 22
but it 23 is the counsel 24 of the Lord which will stand.
19:23 Fearing the Lord 25 leads 26 to life, 27
and one who does so will live 28 satisfied; he will not be afflicted 29 by calamity.
21:1 The king’s heart 30 is in the hand 31 of the Lord like channels of water; 32
he turns it wherever he wants.
22:14 The mouth 33 of an adulteress is like 34 a deep pit; 35
the one against whom the Lord is angry 36 will fall into it. 37
24:22 for suddenly their destruction will overtake them, 38
and who knows the ruinous judgment both the Lord and the king can bring? 39
30:9 lest I become satisfied and act deceptively 40
and say, “Who is the Lord?”
Or lest I become poor and steal
and demean 41 the name of my God.
1 tn Or “the
2 tn Heb “your confidence” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV) or “at your side.” There is debate whether the term כֶּסֶל (kesel) is related to the root I כָסַל “loins; side” (so HALOT 489 s.v. I כֶּסֶל 2) or II כָסַל “confidence” (so BDB 492 s.v. כֶּסֶל 3). The Vulgate relates it to I כָסַל and offers “the
3 sn The term רַגְלְךָ (raglekha, “your foot”) functions as a synecdoche of part (= your foot) for the whole person (= you). This synecdoche develops the extended comparison between the hunter’s snare and calamity that afflicts the wicked.
4 tn Heb “from capture.” The noun לָכֶד (lakhed, “capture; snare”) occurs only here in OT (BDB 540 s.v.; HALOT 530 s.v. לֶכֶד). It is figurative for the calamity of v. 25. God will protect the wise (or, righteous) from the consequences of sin (snares) that afflict the wicked.
5 tn Heb “fear of the
6 tn Heb “crooked of ways”; NRSV “devious in conduct.” This construct phrase features a genitive of specification: “crooked in reference to his ways.” The term “ways” is an idiom for moral conduct. The evidence that people fear the
7 sn The proverb uses anthropomorphic language to describe God’s exacting and evaluating knowledge of all people.
8 tn The form צֹפוֹת (tsofot, “watching”) is a feminine plural participle agreeing with “eyes.” God’s watching eyes comfort good people but convict evil.
9 tn Heb “he who is prudent” or “he who deals wisely” (cf. KJV). The proverb seems to be referring to wise business concerns and the reward for the righteous. One who deals wisely in a matter will find good results. R. N. Whybray sees a contrast here: “The shrewd man of business will succeed well, but the happy man is he who trusts the
10 tn Or “he who gives heed to a word,” that is, “who listens to instruction” (cf. NIV, NLT).
11 tn Heb “good” (so KJV, ASV).
12 tn Although traditionally this word is translated “happy” (cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NRSV, NLT), such a translation can be misleading because the word means far more than that. It describes the heavenly bliss that comes from knowing one is right with God and following God’s precepts. The “blessed” could be at odds with the world (Ps 1:1-3).
13 tn Heb “and the one who trusts in the
14 tn Heb “he who justifies the wicked and and he who condemns the righteous” (so NASB). The first colon uses two Hiphil participles, מַצְדִּיק (matsdiq) and מַרְשִׁיעַ (marshia’). The first means “to declare righteous” (a declarative Hiphil), and the second means “to make wicked [or, guilty]” or “to condemn” (i.e., “to declare guilty”). To declare someone righteous who is a guilty criminal, or to condemn someone who is innocent, are both abominations for the Righteous Judge of the whole earth.
15 tn Heb “an abomination of the
16 sn The “name of the
17 tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.
18 tn Heb “a tower of strength,” with “strength” regarded as attributive by most English versions. The metaphor “strong tower” indicates that God is a secure refuge. The figure is qualified in the second colon.
19 sn The metaphor of “running” to the
20 tn Heb “is high” or “is inaccessible.” This military-type expression stresses the effect of the trust – security, being out of danger (see HALOT 1305 s.v. שׂגב). Other scriptures will supply the ways that God actually protects people who trust him.
21 sn The plans (from the Hebrew verb חָשַׁב [khashav], “to think; to reckon; to devise”) in the human heart are many. But only those which God approves will succeed.
22 tn Heb “in the heart of a man” (cf. NAB, NIV). Here “heart” is used for the seat of thoughts, plans, and reasoning, so the translation uses “mind.” In contemporary English “heart” is more often associated with the seat of emotion than with the seat of planning and reasoning.
23 tn Heb “but the counsel of the
24 tn The antithetical parallelism pairs “counsel” with “plans.” “Counsel of the
sn The point of the proverb is that the human being with many plans is uncertain, but the
25 tn Heb “the fear of the
26 tn The term “leads” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and style.
27 tn Here “life” is probably a metonymy of subject for “blessings and prosperity in life.” The plural form often covers a person’s “lifetime.”
28 tn The subject of this verb is probably the one who fears the
29 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
30 sn “Heart” is a metonymy of subject; it signifies the ability to make decisions, if not the decisions themselves.
31 sn “Hand” in this passage is a personification; the word is frequently used idiomatically for “power,” and that is the sense intended here.
32 tn “Channels of water” (פַּלְגֵי, palge) is an adverbial accusative, functioning as a figure of comparison – “like channels of water.” Cf. NAB “Like a stream”; NIV “watercourse”; NRSV, NLT “a stream of water.”
sn The farmer channels irrigation ditches where he wants them, where they will do the most good; so does the
33 sn The word “mouth” is a metonymy of cause; it refers to the seductive speech of the strange woman (e.g., 2:16-22; and chs. 5, 7).
34 tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.
35 sn The point of the metaphor is that what the adulteress says is like a deep pit. The pit is like the hunter’s snare; it is a trap that is difficult to escape. So to succumb to the adulteress – or to any other folly this represents – is to get oneself into a difficulty that has no easy escape.
36 tn Heb “the one who is cursed by the
37 tn Heb “will fall there.” The “falling” could refer to the curse itself or to the result of the curse.
sn The proverb is saying that the
38 tn Heb “will rise” (so NASB).
39 tn Heb “the ruin of the two of them.” Judgment is sent on the rebels both by God and the king. The term פִּיד (pid, “ruin; disaster”) is a metonymy of effect, the cause being the sentence of judgment (= “ruinous judgment” in the translation; cf. NLT “punishment”). The word “two of them” is a subjective genitive – they two bring the disaster on the rebels. The referents (the
sn The reward for living in peace under God in this world is that those who do will escape the calamities that will fall on the rebellious. Verse 21a is used in 1 Peter 2:17, and v. 22 is used in Romans 13:1-7 (v. 4). This is the thirtieth and last of this collection.
40 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).
41 tn The Hebrew verb literally means “to take hold of; to seize”; this produces the idea of doing violence to the reputation of God.