23:8 “You must not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see 1 and subverts the words of the righteous.
16:1 Observe the month Abib 4 and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month 5 he 6 brought you out of Egypt by night.
30:15 The leech 14 has two daughters: 15
“Give! Give!” 16
There are three things that are never satisfied,
four 17 that never say, “Enough” 18 –
30:16 the grave, 19 the barren womb, 20
land that is not satisfied with water,
and fire that never says, “Enough!” 21
5:12 Certainly 22 I am aware of 23 your many rebellious acts 24
and your numerous sins.
You 25 torment the innocent, you take bribes,
and you deny justice to 26 the needy at the city gate. 27
3:11 Her 28 leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, 29
her priests proclaim rulings for profit,
and her prophets read omens for pay.
Yet they claim to trust 30 the Lord and say,
“The Lord is among us. 31
Disaster will not overtake 32 us!”
7:3 They are determined to be experts at doing evil; 33
government officials and judges take bribes, 34
prominent men make demands,
and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them. 35
1 tn Heb “blinds the open-eyed.”
2 tn Heb “twist, overturn”; NRSV “subverts the cause.”
3 tn Or “innocent”; NRSV “those who are in the right”; NLT “the godly.”
4 sn The month Abib, later called Nisan (Neh 2:1; Esth 3:7), corresponds to March-April in the modern calendar.
5 tn Heb “in the month Abib.” The demonstrative “that” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.
6 tn Heb “the
7 tn Heb “manna which you and your ancestors did not know.” By popular etymology the word “manna” comes from the Hebrew phrase מָן הוּא (man hu’), i.e., “What is it?” (Exod 16:15). The question remains unanswered to this very day. Elsewhere the material is said to be “white like coriander seed” with “a taste like honey cakes” (Exod 16:31; cf. Num 11:7). Modern attempts to associate it with various desert plants are unsuccessful for the text says it was a new thing and, furthermore, one that appeared and disappeared miraculously (Exod 16:21-27).
8 tn Heb “in order to make known to you.” In the Hebrew text this statement is subordinated to what precedes, resulting in a very long sentence in English. The translation makes this statement a separate sentence for stylistic reasons.
9 tn Heb “the man,” but in a generic sense, referring to the whole human race (“mankind” or “humankind”).
10 tn The Hebrew term may refer to “food” in a more general sense (cf. CEV).
11 sn Jesus quoted this text to the devil in the midst of his forty-day fast to make the point that spiritual nourishment is incomparably more important than mere physical bread (Matt 4:4; cf. Luke 4:4).
12 sn Sacred pillars. These are the stelae (stone pillars; the Hebrew term is מַצֵּבֹת, matsevot) associated with Baal worship, perhaps to mark a spot hallowed by an alleged visitation of the gods. See also Deut 7:5.
13 sn Sacred Asherah poles. The Hebrew term (plural) is אֲשֵׁרִים (’asherim). See note on the word “(leafy) tree” in v. 2, and also Deut 7:5.
14 sn The next two verses describe insatiable things, things that are problematic to normal life. The meaning of v. 15a and its relationship to 15b is debated. But the “leech” seems to have been selected to begin the section because it was symbolic of greed – it sucks blood through its two suckers. This may be what the reference to two daughters calling “Give! Give!” might signify (if so, this is an implied comparison, a figure known as hypocatastasis).
15 sn As one might expect, there have been various attempts to identify the “two daughters.” In the Rabbinic literature some identified Alukah (the “leech”) with Sheol, and the two daughters with paradise and hell, one claiming the righteous and the other the unrighteous; others identified Alukah with Gehenna, and the two daughters with heresy and government, neither of which is ever satisfied (Midrash Tehillim quoted by Rashi, a Jewish scholar who lived
16 tn The two imperatives הַב הַב (hav hav, “give, give,” from יָהַב, yahav) correspond to the two daughters, and form their appeal. This would then be a personification – it is as if the leech is crying out, “Give! Give!”
17 sn There is a noticeable rhetorical sequence here: two daughters, three things, four (see W. M. Roth, “The Numerical Sequence x / x +1 in the Old Testament,” VT 12 [1962]: 300-311, and “Numerical Sayings in the Old Testament,” VT 13 [1965]: 86). W. McKane thinks the series builds to a climax with the four, and in the four the barren woman is the focal point, the other three being metaphors for her sexual desire (Proverbs [OTL], 656). This interpretation is a minority view, however, and has not won widespread support.
18 tn Throughout the book of Proverbs הוֹן (hon) means “wealth”; but here it has the nuance of “sufficiency” (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT “satisfied”) or “enough” (BDB 223 s.v.).
19 tn The term שְׁאוֹל (she’ol, “Sheol”) refers here to the realm of the dead: “the grave” (so KJV, NIV, NLT); cf. TEV, CEV “the world of the dead”; NAB “the nether world.”
20 tn Heb “the closing of the womb,” a situation especially troubling for one who is consumed with a desire for children (e.g., Gen 16:2; 30:1).
21 sn There is no clear lesson made from these observations. But one point that could be made is that greed, symbolized by the leech, is as insatiable as all these other things. If that is the case, the proverb would constitute a warning against the insatiable nature of greed.
22 tn Or “for.”
23 tn Or “I know” (so most English versions).
24 tn Or “transgressions,” “sins.” See the note on the word “crimes” in 1:3 and on the phrase “covenant violations” in 2:4.
25 tn Heb “Those who.”
26 tn Heb “turn aside.” They “turn aside” the needy by denying them the justice they deserve at the city gate (where legal decisions were made, and therefore where justice should be done).
27 sn Legal disputes were resolved in the city gate, where the town elders met.
28 sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).
29 tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”
30 tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”
31 tn Heb “Is not the
32 tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”
33 tn Heb “upon evil [are their] hands to do [it] well.”
34 tn Heb “the official asks – and the judge – for a bribe.”
35 tn More literally, “the great one announces what his appetite desires and they weave it together.” Apparently this means that subordinates plot and maneuver to make sure the prominent man’s desires materialize.