Proverbs 4:17
Context| NETBible | For they eat bread 1 gained from wickedness 2 and drink wine obtained from violence. 3 |
| XREF | Job 24:5,6; Ps 14:4; Pr 9:17; Pr 20:17; Jer 5:26-28; Eze 22:25-29; Am 8:4-6; Mic 3:5; Mic 6:12; Zep 3:3; Mt 23:14; Jas 5:4,5 |
| NET © Notes |
1 tn The noun is a cognate accusative stressing that they consume wickedness. 2 tn Heb “the bread of wickedness” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV). There are two ways to take the genitives: (1) genitives of apposition: wickedness and violence are their food and drink (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT), or (2) genitives of source: they derive their livelihood from the evil they do (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 93). 3 tn Heb “the wine of violence” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV). This is a genitive of source, meaning that the wine they drink was plundered from their violent crime. The Hebrew is structured in an AB:BA chiasm: “For they eat the bread of wickedness, and the wine of violence they drink.” The word order in the translation is reversed for the sake of smoothness and readability. |
