Text -- Proverbs 12:1-3 (NET)

12:1 The one who loves discipline loves knowledge, but the one who hates reproof is stupid. 12:2 A good person obtains favor from the Lord, but the Lord condemns a person with wicked schemes. 12:3 No one can be established through wickedness, but a righteous root cannot be moved.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Pro 12:1

¹ sn Those who wish to improve themselves must learn to accept correction; the fool hates/rejects any correction.

² sn The word בָּעַר (ba’ar, “brutish; stupid”) normally describes dumb animals that lack intellectual sense. Here, it describes the moral fool who is not willing to learn from correction. He is like a dumb animal (so the term here functions as a hypocatastasis: implied comparison).

NET Notes: Pro 12:2

¹ tn Heb “but he condemns”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “a man of wicked plans.” The noun מְזִמּוֹת (mÿzimmot, “evil plans”) functions as an attributive genitive: “an evil-scheming man.” Cf. NASB “a man who devises evil”; NAB “the schemer.”

NET Notes: Pro 12:3

¹ tn Heb “a man cannot be.”

² tn The Niphal imperfect of כּוּן (cun, “to be established”) refers to finding permanent “security” (so NRSV, TEV, CEV) before God. Only righteousness can do that.

³ tn Heb “a root of righteousness.” The genitive צַדִּיקִים (tsadiqim, “righteousness”) functions as an attributive adjective. The figure “root” (שֹׁרֶשׁ, shoresh) stresses the security of the righteous; they are firmly planted and cannot be uprooted (cf. NLT “the godly have deep roots”). The righteous are often compared to a tree (e.g., 11:30; Ps 1:3; 92:13).