9:7 Whoever corrects 4 a mocker is asking for 5 insult; 6
whoever reproves a wicked person receives 7 abuse.
9:8 Do not reprove 8 a mocker or 9 he will hate you;
reprove a wise person and he will love you.
65:5 They say, ‘Keep to yourself!
Don’t get near me, for I am holier than you!’
These people are like smoke in my nostrils,
like a fire that keeps burning all day long.
3:3 That is why the rains have been withheld,
and the spring rains have not come.
Yet in spite of this you are obstinate as a prostitute. 10
You refuse to be ashamed of what you have done.
6:15 Are they ashamed because they have done such shameful things?
No, they are not at all ashamed.
They do not even know how to blush!
So they will die, just like others have died. 11
They will be brought to ruin when I punish them,”
says the Lord.
8:12 Are they ashamed because they have done such disgusting things?
No, they are not at all ashamed!
They do not even know how to blush!
So they will die just like others have died. 12
They will be brought to ruin when I punish them,
says the Lord.
1 tc Many medieval Hebrew
2 tn Heb “all his house” (so ASV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “his whole family.”
3 tn Heb “he is a son of worthlessness.”
4 tn The active participle יֹסֵר (yoser) describes one who tries to correct by means of instruction and discipline; it is paralleled by the Hiphil participle which refers to someone who rebukes or reproves another. Anyone trying this on these types of people would be inviting trouble.
5 tn Heb “receives for himself.”
6 tn The word means “dishonor” or “disgrace.” It is paralleled with מוּמוֹ (mumo), translated “abuse.” The latter term means “blemish,” although some would emend the text to read “reproach.” The MT is figurative but not impossible to interpret: Whoever tries to rebuke a wicked person will receive only insults and perhaps physical attack.
7 tn The verb “receives” is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.
8 tn In view of the expected response for reproof, the text now uses a negated jussive to advise against the attempt. This is paralleled antithetically by the imperative in the second colon. This imperative is in an understood conditional clause: “if you reprove a wise person.”
9 tn Heb “lest he hate you.” The particle פֶּן (pen, “lest”) expresses fear or precaution (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 79, §476). The antonyms “love” and “hate” suggest that the latter means “reject” and the former means “choosing and embracing.”
10 tn Heb “you have the forehead of a prostitute.”
11 tn Heb “They will fall among the fallen.”
12 tn Heb “They will fall among the fallen.”
13 tn Or “otherwise the latter will trample them under their feet and the former will turn around and tear you to pieces.” This verse is sometimes understood as a chiasm of the pattern a-b-b-a, in which the first and last clauses belong together (“dogs…turn around and tear you to pieces”) and the second and third clauses belong together (“pigs…trample them under their feet”).