Discovery BoxProverbs 4:4 
Context4:4 he taught me, and he said to me:
“Let your heart lay hold of my words;
keep my commands so that 1 you will live.
Proverbs 8:29
Context8:29 when he gave the sea his decree
that the waters should not pass over his command, 2
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
Proverbs 9:9
Context9:9 Give instruction 3 to a wise person, 4 and he will become wiser still;
teach 5 a righteous person and he will add to his 6 learning.
Proverbs 20:16
Context20:16 Take a man’s 7 garment 8 when he has given security for a stranger, 9
and when he gives surety for strangers, 10 hold him 11 in pledge.
Proverbs 21:1
Context21:1 The king’s heart 12 is in the hand 13 of the Lord like channels of water; 14
he turns it wherever he wants.
Proverbs 22:29
Context22:29 Do you see a person skilled 15 in his work?
He will take his position before kings;
he will not take his position 16 before obscure people. 17
Proverbs 23:7
Context23:7 for he is 18 like someone calculating the cost 19 in his mind. 20
“Eat and drink,” he says to you,
but his heart is not with you;
Proverbs 24:29
Context24:29 Do not say, “I will do to him just as he has done to me;
I will pay him back 21 according to what he has done.” 22
Proverbs 27:13
Context27:13 Take a man’s 23 garment when he has given security for a stranger,
and when he gives surety for a stranger, 24 hold him in pledge. 25
1 tn The imperative with the vav expresses volitional sequence after the preceding imperative: “keep and then you will live,” meaning “keep so that you may live.”
2 tn Heb “his mouth.”
3 tn The noun “instruction” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation.
4 sn The parallelism shows what Proverbs will repeatedly stress, that the wise person is the righteous person.
5 tn The Hiphil verb normally means “to cause to know, make known”; but here the context suggests “to teach” (so many English versions).
6 tn The term “his” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for the sake of smoothness and clarity.
7 tn Heb “his garment.”
8 sn Taking a garment was the way of holding someone responsible to pay debts. In fact, the garment was the article normally taken for security (Exod 22:24-26; Deut 24:10-13). Because this is a high risk security pledge (e.g., 6:1-5), the creditor is to deal more severely than when the pledge is given by the debtor for himself.
9 tc The Kethib has the masculine plural form, נָכְרִים (nakhrim), suggesting a reading “strangers.” But the Qere has the feminine form נָכְרִיָּה (nakhriyyah), “strange woman” or “another man’s wife” (e.g., 27:13). The parallelism would suggest “strangers” is the correct reading, although theories have been put forward for the interpretation of “strange woman” (see below).
sn The one for whom the pledge is taken is called “a stranger” and “foreign.” These two words do not necessarily mean that the individual or individuals are non-Israelite – just outside the community and not well known.
10 tn M. Dahood argues that the cloak was taken in pledge for a harlot (cf. NIV “a wayward woman”). Two sins would then be committed: taking a cloak and going to a prostitute (“To Pawn One’s Cloak,” Bib 42 [1961]: 359-66; also Snijders, “The Meaning of זָר,” 85-86). In the MT the almost identical proverb in 27:13 has a feminine singular form here.
11 tn Or “hold it” (so NIV, NCV).
12 sn “Heart” is a metonymy of subject; it signifies the ability to make decisions, if not the decisions themselves.
13 sn “Hand” in this passage is a personification; the word is frequently used idiomatically for “power,” and that is the sense intended here.
14 tn “Channels of water” (פַּלְגֵי, palge) is an adverbial accusative, functioning as a figure of comparison – “like channels of water.” Cf. NAB “Like a stream”; NIV “watercourse”; NRSV, NLT “a stream of water.”
sn The farmer channels irrigation ditches where he wants them, where they will do the most good; so does the
15 sn The word translated “skilled” is general enough to apply to any crafts; but it may refer to a scribe or an official (R. N. Whybray, Proverbs [CBC], 134).
16 tn The verb form used twice here is יִתְיַצֵּב (yityatsev), the Hitpael imperfect of יָצַב (yatsav), which means “to set or station oneself; to take one’s stand” in this stem. With the form לִפְנֵי (life) it means “to present oneself before” someone; so here it has the idea of serving as a courtier in the presence of a king.
17 sn The fifth saying affirms that true skill earns recognition and advancement (cf. Instruction of Amenemope, chap. 30, 27:16-17 [ANET 424]).
18 tc The line is difficult; it appears to mean that the miser is the kind of person who has calculated the cost of everything in his mind as he offers the food. The LXX has: “Eating and drinking with him is as if one should swallow a hair; do not introduce him to your company nor eat bread with him.” The Hebrew verb “to calculate” (שָׁעַר, sha’ar) with a change of vocalization and of sibilant would yield “hair” (שֵׂעָר, se’ar) – “like a hair in the throat [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh], so is he.” This would picture an irritating experience. The Instruction of Amenemope uses “blocking the throat” in a similar saying (chapt. 11, 14:7 [ANET 423]). The suggested change is plausible and is followed by NRSV; but the rare verb “to calculate” in the MT would be easier to defend on the basis of the canons of textual criticism because it is the more difficult reading.
19 tn The phrase “the cost” does not appear in the Hebrew but is implied by the verb; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.
20 tn Heb “soul.”
21 tn Heb “repay to the man.” The verb is שׁוּב (shuv), which in the Hiphil stem means “to restore; to repay; to return” (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT “I’ll get even”). The idea is that of repaying someone for what he did.
22 sn Rather than give in to the spirit of vengeance, one should avoid retaliation (e.g., Prov 20:22; Matt 5:43-45; Rom 12:9). According to the Talmud, Hillel said, “Do not do to others what you would not have them do unto you” (b. Sanhedrin 31a).
23 tn Heb “his garment.”
24 tn Or “for a strange (= adulterous) woman.” Cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NLT; NIV “a wayward woman.”
