¹ tn Heb “were they caught among thieves?”

¹ tn Or “was forced off course.” Grk “The ship being caught in it.” The genitive absolute construction with the participle συναρπασθέντος (sunarpasthentos) has been taken temporally; it could also be translated as causal (“Because the ship was caught in it”).

¹ tn The words, “that have been caught” are not in the text but are implicit in the comparison.

³ sn Caught in the violent wind, the ship was driven along. They were now out of control, at the mercy of the wind and sea.

¹ sn The point of this saying is that a weak creature like a lizard, that is so easily caught, cannot be prevented from getting into the most significant places.

² tn Heb “hates his soul.” The accomplice is working against himself, for he will be punished along with the thief if he is caught.

² tn The verb לָכַד (lakhad) means “to capture, trap, overpower.” Here it is passive; cf. NIV, TEV “are trapped,” NASB, NKJV “caught,” ESV, NRSV “taken captive.”

¹ tn The imperfect tense in this verse is still instructional rather than a simple future. The translations can vary, but the point that it is directive must be caught.

² tn Heb “and they came upon the city, [which was] secure.” In this case “secure” means the city was caught unprepared and at peace, not expecting an attack.

² tn Heb “you yourself will not escape from their hand but will be seized by [caught in] the hand of the king of Babylon.” Neither use of “hand” is natural to the English idiom.

¹ sn Killing a thief caught in the act of breaking and entering into a person’s home was pardonable under the law of Moses; cf. Exod 22:2.

⁶ tn Heb “evil.” The term רָעָה (raʿah, “evil; unfortunate”) is repeated in v. 12 in the two parts of the comparison: “fish are caught in an evil (רָעָה) net” and “men are ensnared at an unfortunate (רָעָה) time.”

⁴ sn The discerning person will learn from verbal rebukes. The contrast is caught in a wordplay in the Midrash: “For the wise a hint [rʾmizo], for the fool a fist [kurmezo]” (Mishle 22:6).

² tn The verb יָקַשׁ (yaqash) means “to lay a bait; to lure; to lay snares.” In the Niphal it means “to be caught by bait; to be ensnared”—here in a business entanglement.

¹ sn The image of paths, brightness or darkness, and stumbling illustrate the contrast of lifestyles. When acting with righteousness one’s course becomes clearer and more sure, while the wicked are caught in their ways, ignorant of why they fall.

³ sn According to the parallels in 2 Kgs 25:8-9 and Jer 52:12-13, this occurred almost a month after the wall was breached and Zedekiah was caught in flight. The destruction took place under the direction of Nebuzaradan, the captain of the king’s special guard who is mentioned in the next verse.

¹ tn The Syriac and Tg. Prov 29:6 simplify the meaning by writing it with a passive verb: “the evil man is ensnared by his guilt.” The metaphor of the snare indicates that the evil person will be caught in his own transgression.

³ sn The image of “spreading a net” for someone’s steps is an implied comparison (a figure of speech known as hypocatastasis): As one would literally spread a net, this individual’s flattery will come back to destroy him. A net would be spread to catch the prey, and so the idea is one of being caught and destroyed.

¹ sn The proverb uses antithetical parallelism to teach that diligence leads to prosperity. It contrasts loving sleep with opening the eyes, and poverty with satisfaction. Just as “sleep” can be used for slothfulness or laziness, so opening the eyes can represent vigorous, active conduct. The idioms have caught on in modern usage as well—things like “open your eyes” or “asleep on the job.”

¹ tn The line asks if the animal, when caught and tied and under control, would keep on begging for mercy. Absolutely not. It is not in the nature of the beast. The construction uses יַרְבֶּה (yarbeh, “[will] he multiply” [= “make numerous”]), with the object, “supplications” i.e., prayers for mercy.