18:10 “Suppose such a man has 1 a violent son who sheds blood and does any of these things 2 mentioned previously
17:21 Whoever brings a fool 3 into the world 4 does so 5 to his grief,
and the father of a fool has no joy. 6
23:24 The father of a righteous person will rejoice greatly; 7
whoever fathers a wise child 8 will have joy in him.
1 tn Heb “begets.”
2 tn Heb “and he does, a brother, from one of these.” If “brother” is retained, it may be an adverbial accusative, “against a brother” (i.e., fellow Israelite). But the form is likely dittographic (note the אח [aleph-heth] combination in the following form).
3 sn Here the Hebrew terms כְּסִיל (kÿsil) and נָבָל (naval) are paired. The first one, which occurs about fifty times in the book, refers to a dullard, whether it be in spiritual, intellectual, or moral matters. The second word, rare in the book, primarily focuses on religious folly – it refers to the practical atheist, the one who lives as if there is no God.
4 tn The form simply means “bears” or “gives birth to,” but since it is masculine it could be rendered “fathers” (cf. NASB “he who begets a fool”; NIV “To have a fool for a son”). The form for “fool” is masculine, but the proverb is not limited only to male children (cf. NCV “It is sad to have a foolish child”).
5 tn The phrase “does so” is supplied for the sake of clarification.
6 sn Parents of fools, who had hoped for children who would be a credit to the family, find only bitter disappointment (cf. TEV “nothing but sadness and sorrow”).
7 tc The Qere reading has the imperfect יָגִיל (yagil) with the cognate accusative גִּיל (gil) which intensifies the meaning and the specific future of this verb.
8 tn The term “child” is supplied for the masculine singular adjective here.