6:29 So it is with 1 the one who has sex with 2 his neighbor’s wife;
no one 3 who touches 4 her will escape 5 punishment. 6
10:5 The one who gathers crops 7 in the summer is a wise 8 son,
but the one who sleeps 9 during the harvest
is a son who brings shame to himself. 10
13:24 The one who spares his rod 11 hates 12 his child, 13
but the one who loves his child 14 is diligent 15 in disciplining 16 him.
14:2 The one who walks in his uprightness fears the Lord, 17
but the one who is perverted in his ways 18 despises him.
16:20 The one who deals wisely 19 in a matter 20 will find success, 21
and blessed 22 is the one who trusts in the Lord. 23
16:32 Better to be slow to anger 24 than to be a mighty warrior,
and one who controls his temper 25 is better than 26 one who captures a city. 27
17:15 The one who acquits the guilty and the one who condemns the innocent 28 –
both of them are an abomination to the Lord. 29
17:20 The one who has a perverse heart 30 does not find good, 31
and the one who is deceitful in speech 32 falls into trouble.
22:16 The one who oppresses the poor to increase his own gain
and the one who gives to the rich 33 – both end up only in poverty.
23:34 And you will be like one who lies down in the midst 34 of the sea,
and like one who lies down on the top of the rigging. 35
25:20 Like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, 36
or like vinegar poured on soda, 37
so is one who sings songs to a heavy heart. 38
26:27 The one who digs a pit 39 will fall into it;
the one who rolls a stone – it will come back on him.
28:24 The one who robs 40 his father and mother and says, “There is no transgression,”
is a companion 41 to the one 42 who destroys.
1 tn Heb “thus is the one.”
2 tn Heb “who goes in to” (so NAB, NASB). The Hebrew verb בּוֹא (bo’, “to go in; to enter”) is used throughout scripture as a euphemism for the act of sexual intercourse. Cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT “who sleeps with”; NCV “have sexual relations with.”
3 tn Heb “anyone who touches her will not.”
4 sn The verb “touches” is intended here to be a euphemism for illegal sexual contact (e.g., Gen 20:6).
5 tn Heb “will be exempt from”; NASB, NLT “will not go unpunished.”
6 tn The verb is יִנָּקֶה (yinnaqeh), the Niphal imperfect from נָקָה (naqah, “to be empty; to be clean”). From it we get the adjectives “clean,” “free from guilt,” “innocent.” The Niphal has the meanings (1) “to be cleaned out” (of a plundered city; e.g., Isa 3:26), (2) “to be clean; to be free from guilt; to be innocent” (Ps 19:14), (3) “to be free; to be exempt from punishment” [here], and (4) “to be free; to be exempt from obligation” (Gen 24:8).
7 tn The direct object “crops” does not appear in the Hebrew but is implied by the verb; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness.
8 tn Heb “prudent.” The term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) refers to a wise and so successful person. He seizes the opportunity, knowing the importance of the season.
9 sn The term “sleeps” is figurative, an implied comparison that has become idiomatic (like the contemporary English expression “asleep on the job”). It means that this individual is lazy or oblivious to the needs of the hour.
10 tn The phrase “to himself” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for the sake of clarity. Another option is “to his father.”
11 sn R. N. Whybray cites an Egyptian proverb that says that “boys have their ears on their backsides; they listen when they are beaten” (Proverbs [CBC], 80). Cf. Prov 4:3-4, 10-11; Eph 6:4; Heb 12:5-11.
12 sn The importance of parental disciplining is stressed by the verbs “hate” and “love.” “Hating” a child in this sense means in essence abandoning or rejecting him; “loving” a child means embracing and caring for him. Failure to discipline a child is tantamount to hating him – not caring about his character.
13 tn Heb “his son.”
14 tn Heb “him”; the referent (his child) is specified in the translation for clarity.
15 tn Heb “seeks him.” The verb שָׁחַר (shahar, “to be diligent; to do something early”; BDB 1007 s.v.) could mean “to be diligent to discipline,” or “to be early or prompt in disciplining.” See G. R. Driver, “Hebrew Notes on Prophets and Proverbs,” JTS 41 (1940): 170.
16 tn The noun מוּסָר (musar, “discipline”) functions as an adverbial accusative of reference: “he is diligent in reference to discipline.”
17 tn Heb “fear of the
18 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
19 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
20 tn Or “he who gives heed to a word,” that is, “who listens to instruction” (cf. NIV, NLT).
21 tn Heb “good” (so KJV, ASV).
22 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).
23 tn Heb “and the one who trusts in the
24 tn One who is “slow to anger” is a patient person (cf. NAB, NIV, NLT). This is explained further in the parallel line by the description of “one who rules his spirit” (וּמֹשֵׁל בְּרוּחוֹ, umoshel bÿrukho), meaning “controls his temper.” This means the person has the emotions under control and will not “fly off the handle” quickly.
25 tn Heb “who rules his spirit” (so NASB).
26 tn The phrase “is better than” does not appear in this line in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the parallelism.
27 sn The saying would have had greater impact when military prowess was held in high regard. It is harder, and therefore better, to control one’s passions than to do some great exploit on the battlefield.
28 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.
29 tn Heb “an abomination of the
30 tn The verse parallels two descriptions of the wicked person: “crooked/perverse of heart” (genitive of specification), and “turned away in his tongue” (deceitful). The first phrase describes twisted intentions. The second, using the Niphal participle (“one turned away”) with “tongue,” the metonymy of cause, describes one who has turned away from speaking truth. Cf. NLT “the twisted tongue tumbles into trouble.”
31 tn The phrase “does not find good” is a figure (tapeinosis) meaning, “will experience calamity.” The wicked person can expect trouble ahead.
32 tn Heb “tongue”; NIV “whose tongue is deceitful.”
33 tn Heb “oppressing the poor, it is gain; giving to the rich, it is loss.” The Hebrew is cryptic, but two sins are mentioned here that will be punished by poverty: extortion and bribery. Perhaps the proverb is simply saying it is easy to oppress the poor for gain, but it is a waste of money to try to buy or bribe a patron (D. Kidner, Proverbs [TOTC], 149).
34 tn Heb “heart.” The idiom here means “middle”; KJV “in the midst.”
35 sn The point of these similes is to compare being drunk with being seasick. One who tries to sleep when at sea, or even worse, when up on the ropes of the mast, will be tossed back and forth.
36 tc The consonants of the Hebrew text of this verse are similar to the consonants in v. 19. The LXX has a much longer reading: “Like vinegar is bad for a wound, so a pain that afflicts the body afflicts the heart. Like a moth in a garment, and a worm in wood, so the pain of a man wounds the heart” (NRSV follows much of the LXX reading; NAB follows only the second sentence of the LXX reading). The idea that v. 20 is a dittogram is not very convincing; and the Greek version is too far removed to be of help in the matter.
37 tn The second simile mentions pouring vinegar on soda. The LXX has “scab,” but that does not fit as a sensitive thing. The reference is to sodium carbonate (natural in Egypt) which can be neutralized with vinegar.
38 sn It is inappropriate and counterproductive to sing songs to a heavy heart. One needs to be sensitive to others (e.g., 1 Sam 19:9).
39 sn The verse is teaching talionic justice (“an eye for an eye,” etc.), and so the activities described should be interpreted as evil in their intent. “Digging a pit” would mean laying a trap for someone (the figure of speech would be a metonymy of cause for the effect of ruining someone, if an actual pit is being dug; the figure would be hypocatastasis if digging a pit is being compared to laying a trap, but no pit is being dug). Likewise, “rolling a stone” on someone means to destroy that individual.
40 sn While the expression is general enough to cover any kind of robbery, the point seems to be that because it can be rationalized it may refer to prematurely trying to gain control of the family property through some form of pressure and in the process reducing the parents’ possessions and standing in the community. The culprit could claim what he does is not wrong because the estate would be his anyway.
41 sn The metaphor of “companion” here means that a person who would do this is just like the criminally destructive person. It is as if they were working together, for the results are the same.
42 tn Heb “man who destroys” (so NASB); TEV “no better than a common thief.”