Discovery BoxProverbs 10:10 
Context10:10 The one who winks 1 his 2 eye causes 3 trouble,
and the one who speaks foolishness 4 will come to ruin.
Proverbs 13:3
Context13:3 The one who guards his words 5 guards his life,
but 6 whoever is talkative 7 will come to ruin. 8
Proverbs 18:7
Context18:7 The mouth of a fool is his ruin,
and his lips are a snare for his life. 9
Proverbs 19:13
Context19:13 A foolish child 10 is the ruin of his father,
and a contentious wife 11 is like 12 a constant dripping. 13
1 tn The term (קָרַץ, qarats) describes a person who habitually “winks” his eye maliciously as a secretive sign to those conspiring evil (Prov 6:13). This is a comparison rather than a contrast. Devious gestures are grievous, but not as ruinous as foolish talk. Both are to be avoided.
2 tn Heb “the eye.”
3 tn Heb “gives.”
4 tn Heb “the fool of lips”; cf. NASB “a babbling fool.” The phrase is a genitive of specification: “a fool in respect to lips.” The term “lips” is a metonymy of cause (= lips) for effect (= speech). The word for fool (אֶוִיל, ’evil) refers to someone who despises knowledge and discernment.
5 tn Heb “mouth” (so KJV, NAB). The term פֶּה (peh, “mouth”) functions as a metonymy of cause for speech.
6 tn The term “but” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.
7 tn Heb “opens wide his lips.” This is an idiom meaning “to be talkative” (BDB 832 s.v. פָּשַׂק Qal). Cf. NIV “speaks rashly”; TEV “a careless talker”; CEV “talk too much.”
8 sn Tight control over what one says prevents trouble (e.g., Prov 10:10; 17:28; Jas 3:1-12; Sir 28:25). Amenemope advises to “sleep a night before speaking” (5:15; ANET 422, n. 10). The old Arab proverb is appropriate: “Take heed that your tongue does not cut your throat” (O. Zockler, Proverbs, 134).
9 tn Heb “his soul” (so KJV, NASB, NIV).
sn What a fool says can ruin him. Calamity and misfortune can come to a person who makes known his lack of wisdom by what he says. It may be that his words incite anger, or merely reveal stupidity; in either case, he is in trouble.
10 tn Heb “a foolish son” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, CEV); NRSV “a stupid child.”
11 tn Heb “the contentions of a wife” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “the nagging of a wife.” The genitive could be interpreted (1) as genitive of source or subjective genitive – she is quarreling; or (2) it could be a genitive of specification, making the word “contentions” a modifier, as in the present translation.
12 tn Heb “is a constant dripping.” The term “like” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity. The metaphor pictures water dropping (perhaps rain through the roof, cf. NRSV, CEV) in a continuous flow: It is annoying and irritating (e.g., Prov 27:15-16).
13 tc The LXX makes this moralistic statement for 13b: “vows paid out of hire of a harlot are not pure.” It is not based on the MT and attempts to reconstruct a text using this have been unsuccessful.
