5:21 For the ways of a person 1 are in front of the Lord’s eyes,
and the Lord 2 weighs 3 all that person’s 4 paths.
9:9 Give instruction 5 to a wise person, 6 and he will become wiser still;
teach 7 a righteous person and he will add to his 8 learning.
29:9 If a wise person 9 goes to court 10 with a foolish person,
there is no peace 11 whether he is angry or laughs. 12
1 tn Heb “man.”
2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the
3 tn BDB 814 s.v. פָּלַס 2 suggests that the participle מְפַּלֵּס (mÿpalles) means “to make level [or, straight].” As one’s ways are in front of the eyes of the
4 tn Heb “all his”; the referent (the person mentioned in the first half of the verse) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 tn The noun “instruction” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation.
6 sn The parallelism shows what Proverbs will repeatedly stress, that the wise person is the righteous person.
7 tn The Hiphil verb normally means “to cause to know, make known”; but here the context suggests “to teach” (so many English versions).
8 tn The term “his” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for the sake of smoothness and clarity.
9 tn Heb “a wise man…a foolish man.”
10 tn The verb שָׁפַט (shafat) means “to judge.” In the Niphal stem it could be passive, but is more frequently reciprocal: “to enter into controversy” or “to go to court.” The word is usually used in connection with a lawsuit (so many recent English versions), but can also refer to an argument (e.g., 1 Sam 12:7; Isa 43:26); cf. NAB “disputes”; NASB “has a controversy.”
11 tn The noun נָחַת (nakhat) is a derivative of נוּחַ (nuakh, “to rest”) and so means “quietness” or “rest,” i.e., “peace.”
sn The proverb is saying that there will be no possibility of settling the matter in a calm way, no matter what mood the fool is in (e.g., Prov 26:4). R. N. Whybray says one can only cut the losses and have no further dealings with the fool (Proverbs [CBC], 168).
12 tn Heb “and he is angry and he laughs.” The construction uses the conjunctive vav to express alternate actions: “whether…or.”