Discovery BoxProverbs 9:9 
Context9:9 Give instruction 1 to a wise person, 2 and he will become wiser still;
teach 3 a righteous person and he will add to his 4 learning.
Proverbs 25:16-17
Context25:16 When you find 5 honey, eat only what is sufficient for you,
lest you become stuffed 6 with it and vomit it up. 7
25:17 Don’t set foot too frequently 8 in your neighbor’s house,
lest he become weary 9 of you and hate you.
1 tn The noun “instruction” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation.
2 sn The parallelism shows what Proverbs will repeatedly stress, that the wise person is the righteous person.
3 tn The Hiphil verb normally means “to cause to know, make known”; but here the context suggests “to teach” (so many English versions).
4 tn The term “his” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for the sake of smoothness and clarity.
5 tn The verse simply begins “you have found honey.” Some turn this into an interrogative clause for the condition laid down (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NLT); most make the form in some way subordinate to the following instruction: “when you find…eat.”
6 tn The verb means “to be satisfied; to be sated; to be filled.” Here it means more than satisfied, since it describes one who overindulges and becomes sick. The English verb “stuffed” conveys this idea well.
7 sn The proverb warns that anything overindulged in can become sickening. The verse uses formal parallelism to express first the condition and then its consequences. It teaches that moderation is wise in the pleasures of life.
8 tn Heb “make your foot rare.” The verb is הֹקַר (hoqar), the Hiphil imperative of יָקַר (yaqar, “to be rare; to be precious”). To “make one’s foot rare” would mean to keep the visits to a minimum as well as making them valuable – things increase in value, according to the nuances of this word, when they are rare.
9 tn Heb “gets full.” This verb means “to be sated; to be satisfied; to be filled.” It is often used with reference to food, but here it refers to frequent visits that wear out one’s welcome (cf. NLT).
