8:10 Receive my instruction 1 rather than 2 silver,
and knowledge rather than choice gold.
8:11 For wisdom is better than rubies,
and desirable things cannot be compared 3 to her.
8:19 My fruit is better than the purest gold, 4
and what I produce 5 is better than choice silver.
1 tn Heb “discipline.” The term refers to instruction that trains with discipline (e.g., Prov 1:2).
2 tn Heb “and not” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “in preference to.”
3 tn The verb יִשְׁווּ (yishvu, from שָׁוָה, shavah) can be rendered “are not comparable” or in a potential nuance “cannot be compared” with her.
4 tn The two synonyms, “than gold, than fine gold” probably form a hendiadys here to express “the very finest gold.”
5 sn The language of the text with “fruit” and “ingathering” is the language of the harvest – what the crops yield. So the figure is hypocatastasis, comparing what wisdom produces to such crops.