5:11 And at the end of your life 1 you will groan 2
when your flesh and your body are wasted away. 3
23:8 you will vomit up 4 the little bit you have eaten,
and will have wasted your pleasant words. 5
1 tn Heb “at your end.”
2 tn The form is the perfect tense with the vav consecutive; it is equal to a specific future within this context.
sn The verb means “to growl, groan.” It refers to a lion when it devours its prey, and to a sufferer in pain or remorse (e.g., Ezek 24:23).
3 tn Heb “in the finishing of your flesh and your body.” The construction uses the Qal infinitive construct of כָּלָה (calah) in a temporal clause; the verb means “be complete, at an end, finished, spent.”
4 sn Eating and drinking with a selfish miser would be irritating and disgusting. The line is hyperbolic; the whole experience turns the stomach.
5 tn Or “your compliments” (so NASB, NIV); cf. TEV “your flattery.”
sn This is the eighth saying; it claims that it would be a mistake to accept hospitality from a stingy person. He is always thinking about the cost, his heart is not in it, and any attempt at pleasant conversation will be lost.