¹ tn Heb “righteous,” but in this context it means to be innocent or in the right.

¹ sn The verbs “guilty” and “innocent” are actually the verbs “I am wicked,” and “I am righteous.”

¹ tc The LXX contains a paraphrase: “for the worthless die, but the righteous are laughed to scorn.”

⁶ tn The construct נְוַת (n^evat) is feminine; only the masculine occurs in Hebrew. But the meaning “abode of your righteousness” is clear enough. The righteousness of Job is pictured as inhabiting an estate, or it pictures the place where Job lives as a righteous man. A translation “rightful habitation” would mean “the habitation that you deserve”—if you are righteous.

¹ tn Heb “and the Lord returns to the man his righteousness and his faithfulness.”

³ tn Heb “declare to be just”; KJV, NASB “justify the righteous”; NAB, NIV “acquitting the innocent.”

¹ tn Traditionally “more righteous”; cf. NCV, NRSV, NLT “more in the right.”

² tn Or “a legal righteousness,” that is, a righteousness based on law. This translation would treat the genitive δικαιοσύνης (dikaiosunēs) as an attributed genitive (see ExSyn 89-91).

¹ tn The Greek sentence expresses this contrast more succinctly than is possible in English. Grk “For not the hearers of the law are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be declared righteous.”

⁶ tn Grk “sons.” Here the phrase “sons of light” is a reference to the righteous. The point is that those of the world often think ahead about consequences better than the righteous do.

¹ sn The proverb makes a simple observation on life: The righteous detest the wicked, and the wicked detest the lifestyle of the righteous. Each is troublesome to the beliefs and the activities of the other.

³ sn These two verbs express the confidence of the righteous—they have no fears and so can sing. So the proverb is saying that only the righteous can enjoy a sense of security.

³ sn God’s response to prayer is determined by the righteousness of the one who prays. A prayer of repentance by the wicked is an exception, for by it they would become the righteous (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 316).

⁴ sn The antithetical proverb states that a righteous person can escape devastating slander through knowledge. The righteous will have sufficient knowledge and perception to see through the hypocrisy and avoid its effect.

¹ tn The phrase could be rendered with an understood ellipsis: “all the words of my mouth [are said] in righteousness”; or the preposition could be interpreted as a beth essentiae: “all the words of my mouth are righteousness.”

¹ tn Or “the fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful”; Grk “is very powerful in its working.”

¹ tn Or “The one who is righteous by faith will live” (a quotation from Hab 2:4).

¹ tn Grk “having now been declared righteous.” The participle δικαιωθέντες (dikaiōthentes) has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.

¹ tn Heb “and like a garment of menstruation [are] all our righteous acts”; KJV, NIV “filthy rags”; ASV “a polluted garment.”

¹ tn Or perhaps, “righteousness,” but the context seems to emphasize deliverance and restoration (see v. 10 and 62:1).