8:13 The fear of the Lord is to hate 5 evil;
I hate arrogant pride 6 and the evil way
and perverse utterances. 7
16:6 Through loyal love and truth 8 iniquity is appeased; 9
through fearing the Lord 10 one avoids 11 evil. 12
16:1 The intentions of the heart 13 belong to a man, 14
but the answer of the tongue 15 comes from 16 the Lord. 17
3:11 My child, do not despise discipline from the Lord, 18
and do not loathe 19 his rebuke.
1 tn Heb “Do not extend your hand toward the boy.”
2 tn Heb “and he said, ‘Do not extend…’”; the referent (the angel) has been specified in the context for clarity. The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
3 sn For now I know. The test was designed to see if Abraham would be obedient (see v. 1).
4 sn In this context fear refers by metonymy to obedience that grows from faith.
5 tn The verb שָׂנֵא (sane’) means “to hate.” In this sentence it functions nominally as the predicate. Fearing the
6 tn Since both גֵּאָה (ge’ah, “pride”) and גָּאוֹן (ga’on, “arrogance; pride”) are both from the same verbal root גָּאָה (ga’ah, “to rise up”), they should here be interpreted as one idea, forming a nominal hendiadys: “arrogant pride.”
7 tn Heb “and a mouth of perverse things.” The word “mouth” is a metonymy of cause for what is said; and the noun תַהְפֻּכוֹת (tahpukhot, “perverse things”) means destructive things (the related verb is used for the overthrowing of Sodom).
8 sn These two words are often found together to form a nominal hendiadys: “faithful loyal love.” The couplet often characterize the
9 tn Heb “is atoned”; KJV “is purged”; NAB “is expiated.” The verb is from I כָּפַר (kafar, “to atone; to expiate; to pacify; to appease”; HALOT 493-94 s.v. I כפר). This root should not be confused with the identically spelled Homonym II כָּפַר (kafar, “to cover over”; HALOT 494 s.v. II *כפר). Atonement in the OT expiated sins, it did not merely cover them over (cf. NLT). C. H. Toy explains the meaning by saying it affirms that the divine anger against sin is turned away and man’s relation to God is as though he had not sinned (Proverbs [ICC], 322). Genuine repentance, demonstrated by loyalty and truthfulness, appeases the anger of God against one’s sin.
10 tn Heb “fear of the
11 tn Heb “turns away from”; NASB “keeps away from.”
12 sn The Hebrew word translated “evil” (רַע, ra’) can in some contexts mean “calamity” or “disaster,” but here it seems more likely to mean “evil” in the sense of sin. Faithfulness to the
13 tn Heb “plans of the heart” (so ASV, NASB, NIV). The phrase מַעַרְכֵי־לֵב (ma’arkhe-lev) means “the arrangements of the mind.”
14 tn Heb “[are] to a man.”
15 tn Here “the tongue” is a metonymy of cause in which the instrument of speech is put for what is said: the answer expressed.
16 sn The contrasting prepositions enhance the contrasting ideas – the ideas belong to people, but the words come from the
17 sn There are two ways this statement can be taken: (1) what one intends to say and what one actually says are the same, or (2) what one actually says differs from what the person intended to say. The second view fits the contrast better. The proverb then is giving a glimpse of how God even confounds the wise. When someone is trying to speak [“answer” in the book seems to refer to a verbal answer] before others, the
18 tn Heb “the discipline of the
19 tn The verb קוּץ (quts) has a two-fold range of meaning: (1) “to feel a loathing; to abhor” and (2) “to feel a sickening dread” (BDB 880 s.v.). The parallelism with “do not despise” suggests the former nuance here. The common response to suffering is to loathe it; however, the righteous understand that it refines one’s moral character and that it is a means to the blessing.