Discovery BoxProverbs 4:12 
Context4:12 When you walk, your steps 1 will not be hampered, 2
and when you run, 3 you will not stumble.
Proverbs 4:16
Context4:16 For they cannot sleep unless they cause harm; 4
they are robbed of sleep 5 until they make someone stumble. 6
Proverbs 4:19
Context4:19 The way of the wicked is like gloomy darkness; 7
they do not know what causes them to stumble. 8
1 sn The noun צַעֲדֶךָ (tsa’adekha, “your steps”) and the temporal infinitive בְּלֶכְתְּךָ (belekhtÿkha, “when you walk”) use the idiom of walking to represent the course of life. On that course there will be no obstacles; the “path” will be straight – morally and practically.
2 sn The verb צָרַר (tsarar, “to be narrow; to be constricted”) refers to that which is narrow or constricted, signifying distress, trouble, adversity; that which was wide-open or broad represents freedom and deliverance.
3 sn The progression from walking to running is an idiom called “anabasis,” suggesting that as greater and swifter progress is made, there will be nothing to impede the progress (e.g., Isa 40:31).
4 sn The verb is רָעַע (ra’a’), which means “to do evil; to harm.” The verse is using the figure of hyperbole to stress the preoccupation of some people with causing trouble. R. L. Alden says, “How sick to find peace only at the price of another man’s misfortune” (Proverbs, 47).
5 sn Heb “their sleep is robbed/seized”; these expressions are metonymical for their restlessness in plotting evil.
6 sn The Hiphil imperfect (Kethib) means “cause to stumble.” This idiom (from hypocatastasis) means “bring injury/ruin to someone” (BDB 505-6 s.v. כָּשַׁל Hiph.1).
7 sn The simile describes ignorance or spiritual blindness, sinfulness, calamity, despair.
8 tn Heb “in what they stumble.”
