8:10 Receive my instruction 1 rather than 2 silver,
and knowledge rather than choice gold.
8:17 I love 3 those who love me,
and those who seek me find me.
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 sn In contrast to the word for “hate” (שָׂנֵא, shaneh) the verb “love” (אָהֵב, ’ahev) includes within it the idea of choosing spontaneously. So in this line loving and seeking point up the means of finding wisdom.
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.