Discovery BoxProverbs 8:6 
Context8:6 Listen, for I will speak excellent things, 1
and my lips will utter 2 what is right.
Proverbs 8:11
Context8:11 For wisdom is better than rubies,
and desirable things cannot be compared 3 to her.
Proverbs 30:7
Context30:7 Two things 4 I ask from you; 5
do not refuse me before I die:
Proverbs 30:18
Context30:18 There are three things that are too wonderful for me, 6
four that I do not understand:
Proverbs 30:24
Context30:24 There are four things on earth that are small, 7
but they are exceedingly wise: 8
1 tn Heb “noble” or “princely.” Wisdom begins the first motivation by claiming to speak noble things, that is, excellent things.
2 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.
3 tn The verb יִשְׁווּ (yishvu, from שָׁוָה, shavah) can be rendered “are not comparable” or in a potential nuance “cannot be compared” with her.
4 sn Wisdom literature often groups things in twos and fours, or in other numerical arrangements (e.g., Amos 1:3–2:6; Job 5:19; Prov 6:16-19).
5 tn Assuming that the contents of vv. 7-9 are a prayer, several English versions have supplied a vocative phrase: “O
6 tn The form נִפְלְאוּ (niflÿ’u) is the Niphal perfect from פָּלָא (pala’); the verb means “to be wonderful; to be extraordinary; to be surpassing”; cf. NIV “too amazing.” The things mentioned are things that the sage finds incomprehensible (e.g., Gen 18:14; Judg 13:18; Ps 139:6; and Isa 9:6[5]). The sage can only admire these wonders – he is at a loss to explain them.
7 tn Heb “Four are the small things of the earth.” TEV has “four animals,” though in the list of four that follows, two are insects and one is a reptile.
8 tn The construction uses the Pual participle with the plural adjective as an intensive; these four creatures are the very embodiment of wisdom (BDB 314 s.v. חָכַם Pu).
