22:7 So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fee for divination in their hand. They came to Balaam and reported 9 to him the words of Balak. 22:8 He replied to them, “Stay 10 here tonight, and I will bring back to you whatever word the Lord may speak to me.” So the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam. 22:9 And God came to Balaam and said, “Who are these men with you?”
13:20 The one who associates 11 with the wise grows wise,
but a companion of fools suffers harm. 12
13:2 From the fruit of his speech 13 a person eats good things, 14
but the faithless 15 desire 16 the fruit of violence. 17
1:17 He himself is before all things and all things are held together 18 in him.
1 tn Heb “which the Syrians inflicted [on] him.”
2 tn Heb “to see.”
3 tn The word רָשָׁע (rasha’) has the sense of a guilty criminal. The word “wicked” sometimes gives the wrong connotation. These men were opposing the
4 tn The preposition bet (בְּ) in this line is causal – “on account of their sins.”
5 sn The impression is that the people did not hear what the
6 tn Heb “princes” (so KJV, ASV).
7 tn These men must have been counselors or judges of some kind.
8 tn Heb “men of name,” or “men of renown.”
9 tn Heb “spoke.”
10 tn The verb לִין (lin) means “to lodge, spend the night.” The related noun is “a lodge” – a hotel of sorts. Balaam needed to consider the offer. And after darkness was considered the best time for diviners to consult with their deities. Balaam apparently knows of the
11 tn Heb “walks.” When used with the preposition אֶת (’et, “with”), the verb הָלַךְ (halakh, “to walk”) means “to associate with” someone (BDB 234 s.v. הָלַךְ II.3.b; e.g., Mic 6:8; Job 34:8). The active participle of הָלַךְ (“to walk”) stresses continual, durative action. One should stay in close association with the wise, and move in the same direction they do.
12 tn The verb form יֵרוֹעַ (yeroa’) is the Niphal imperfect of רָעַע (ra’a’), meaning “to suffer hurt.” Several have attempted to parallel the repetition in the wordplay of the first colon. A. Guillaume has “he who associates with fools will be left a fool” (“A Note on the Roots רִיע, יָרַע, and רָעַע in Hebrew,” JTS 15 [1964]: 294). Knox translated the Vulgate thus: “Fool he ends that fool befriends” (cited by D. Kidner, Proverbs [TOTC], 104).
13 tn Heb “lips” (so NIV); KJV “mouth.” The term “lips” is a metonymy of cause for what the lips produce: speech.
14 tn Heb “he eats [what is] good.”
15 tn Heb “the desire of the faithless.” The noun “faithless” is a subjective genitive: “the faithless desire….”
16 tn The noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, traditionally “soul”) has a broad range of meanings, and here denotes “appetite” (e.g., Ps 17:9; Prov 23:3; Eccl 2:24; Isa 5:14; Hab 2:5; BDB 660 s.v. 5.c) or (2) “desire” (e.g., Deut 12:20; Prov 13:4; 19:8; 21:10; BDB 660 s.v. 6.a).
17 tn Heb “violence.” The phrase “the fruit of” does not appear in the Hebrew but is implied by the parallelism. The term “violence” is probably a metonymy of cause: “violence” represents what violence gains – ill-gotten gains resulting from violent crime. The wicked desire what does not belong to them.
18 tn BDAG 973 s.v. συνίστημι B.3 suggests “continue, endure, exist, hold together” here.