Text -- Proverbs 4:1-5 (NET)

Admonition to Follow Righteousness and Avoid Wickedness

4:1 Listen, children, to a father’s instruction, and pay attention so that you may gain discernment. 4:2 Because I give you good instruction, do not forsake my teaching. 4:3 When I was a son to my father, a tender only child before my mother, 4:4 he taught me, and he said to me: “Let your heart lay hold of my words; keep my commands so that you will live. 4:5 Acquire wisdom, acquire understanding; do not forget and do not turn aside from the words I speak.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Pro 4:1

¹ sn The chapter includes an exhortation to acquire wisdom (1-4a), a list of the benefits of wisdom (4b-9), a call to pursue a righteous lifestyle (10-13), a warning against a wicked lifestyle (14-19), and an exhortation to righteousness (20-27).

² tn Heb “sons.”

³ tn Heb “discipline.”

⁴ tn The Qal infinitive construct with preposition ל (lamed) indicates the purpose/result of the preceding imperative.

⁵ tn Heb “know” (so KJV, ASV).

NET Notes: Pro 4:2

¹ tn The perfect tense has the nuance of instantaneous perfect; the sage is now calling the disciples to listen. It could also be a perfect of resolve, indicating what he is determined to do.

² tn The word לֶקַח (leqakh, “instruction”) can be subjective (instruction acquired) or objective (the thing being taught). The latter fits best here.

NET Notes: Pro 4:3

¹ tn Or “a boy with my father.”

² tc The LXX introduces the ideas of “obedient” and “beloved” for these two terms. This seems to be a free rendering, if not a translation of a different Hebrew textual tradition. The MT makes good sense and requires no emendation.

tn Heb “tender and only one.” The phrase רַךְ וְיָחִיד (rakh vÿyakhid, “tender and only one”) is a hendiadys meaning “tender only child.” The adjective רַךְ (rakh) means “tender; delicate” (BDB 940 s.v. רַךְ), and describes a lad who is young and undeveloped in character (e.g., 2 Sam 3:39). The adjective יָחִיד (yakhid) means “only one” (BDB 402 s.v. יָחִיד) and refers to a beloved and prized only child (e.g., Gen 22:2).

NET Notes: Pro 4:4

¹ tn The imperative with the vav expresses volitional sequence after the preceding imperative: “keep and then you will live,” meaning “keep so that you may live.”

NET Notes: Pro 4:5

¹ tn Heb “from the words of my mouth” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); TEV, CEV “what I say.”

sn The verse uses repetition for the imperative “acquire” to underscore the importance of getting wisdom; it then uses two verb forms for the one prepositional phrase to stress the warning.