Discovery BoxProverbs 3:15 
Context3:15 She is more precious than rubies,
and none of the things 1 you desire 2 can compare 3 with her. 4
Proverbs 11:23
Context11:23 What the righteous desire 5 leads 6 only to good,
but what the wicked hope for 7 leads 8 to wrath.
Proverbs 13:2
Context13:2 From the fruit of his speech 9 a person eats good things, 10
but the faithless 11 desire 12 the fruit of violence. 13
Proverbs 13:4
Context13:4 The appetite 14 of the sluggard 15 craves 16 but gets nothing,
but the desire of the diligent will be abundantly satisfied. 17
1 tn Heb “all of your desires cannot compare with her.”
2 tn Heb “your desires.” The 2nd person masculine singular suffix on the noun probably functions as subjective genitive.
3 tn The imperfect tense verb יָסַד (yasad, “to establish be like; to resemble”) has a potential nuance here: “can be compared with.”
4 tn Heb “All of your desires do not compare with her.”
5 tn Heb “the desire of the righteous.” The noun תַּאֲוַת (ta’avat) functions as an objective genitive: “what the righteous desire.”
6 tn The phrase “leads to” does not appear in the Hebrew text but has been supplied in the translation. The desire of the righteous (in itself good) ends in good things, whereas the hope of the wicked ends in wrath, i.e., divine judgment on them. Another interpretation is that the righteous desire is to do good things, but the wicked hope to produce wrath (cf. CEV “troublemakers hope to stir up trouble”).
7 tn Heb “the hope of the wicked.” The noun תִּקְוַת (tiqvat) “expectation” functions as an objective genitive: “what the wicked hope for.”
8 tn The term “leads” does not appear in the Hebrew text in this line but is implied by the parallelism. It is supplied in the translation for clarity and smoothness.
9 tn Heb “lips” (so NIV); KJV “mouth.” The term “lips” is a metonymy of cause for what the lips produce: speech.
10 tn Heb “he eats [what is] good.”
11 tn Heb “the desire of the faithless.” The noun “faithless” is a subjective genitive: “the faithless desire….”
12 tn The noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, traditionally “soul”) has a broad range of meanings, and here denotes “appetite” (e.g., Ps 17:9; Prov 23:3; Eccl 2:24; Isa 5:14; Hab 2:5; BDB 660 s.v. 5.c) or (2) “desire” (e.g., Deut 12:20; Prov 13:4; 19:8; 21:10; BDB 660 s.v. 6.a).
13 tn Heb “violence.” The phrase “the fruit of” does not appear in the Hebrew but is implied by the parallelism. The term “violence” is probably a metonymy of cause: “violence” represents what violence gains – ill-gotten gains resulting from violent crime. The wicked desire what does not belong to them.
tc The LXX reads “the souls of the wicked perish untimely.” The MT makes sense as it stands.
14 tn The noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, traditionally “soul”) has a broad range of meanings, and here denotes “appetite” (e.g., Ps 17:9; Prov 23:3; Eccl 2:24; Isa 5:14; Hab 2:5; BDB 660 s.v. 5.c) or (2) “desire” (e.g., Deut 12:20; Prov 19:8; 21:10; BDB 660 s.v. 6.a).
15 sn The contrast is between the “soul (= appetite) of the sluggard” (נַפְשׁוֹ עָצֵל, nafsho ’atsel) and the “soul (= desire) of the diligent” (נֶפֶשׁ חָרֻצִים, nefesh kharutsim) – what they each long for.
16 tn The Hitpael verb means “to lust after; to crave.” A related verb is used in the Decalogue’s prohibition against coveting (Exod 20:17; Deut 5:21).
17 tn Heb “will be made fat” (cf. KJV, NASB); NRSV “is richly supplied.”
