Discovery BoxProverbs 5:7 
Context5:7 So now, children, 1 listen to me;
do not turn aside from the words I speak. 2
Proverbs 7:24
Context7:24 So now, sons, 3 listen to me,
and pay attention to the words I speak. 4
Proverbs 8:6
Context8:6 Listen, for I will speak excellent things, 5
and my lips will utter 6 what is right.
Proverbs 23:16
Contextwhen your lips speak what is right. 8
Proverbs 23:33
Context23:33 Your eyes will see strange things, 9
and your mind will speak perverse things.
1 tn Heb “sons.”
2 tn Heb “the words of my mouth” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV).
3 tn The literal translation “sons” works well here in view of the warning. Cf. KJV, NAB, NRSV “children.”
4 tn Heb “the words of my mouth.”
5 tn Heb “noble” or “princely.” Wisdom begins the first motivation by claiming to speak noble things, that is, excellent things.
6 tn Heb “opening of my lips” (so KJV, NASB). The noun “lips” is a metonymy of cause, with the organ of speech put for what is said.
7 tn Heb “my kidneys”; in biblical Hebrew the term was used for the innermost being, the soul, the central location of the passions. Cf. NASB, NIV “my inmost being.”
8 sn This twelfth saying simply observes that children bring joy to their parents when they demonstrate wisdom. The quatrain is arranged in a chiastic structure (AB:B'A'): The first line (A) speaks of wisdom in the child, and it is paired with the last line (A') which speaks of the child’s saying what is right. In between these brackets are two lines (B and B') concerning joy to the parent.
9 tn The feminine plural of זָר (zar, “strange things”) refers to the trouble one has in seeing and speaking when drunk.
