15:7 If a fellow Israelite 3 from one of your villages 4 in the land that the Lord your God is giving you should be poor, you must not harden your heart or be insensitive 5 to his impoverished condition. 6
62:9 Men are nothing but a mere breath;
human beings are unreliable. 13
When they are weighed in the scales,
all of them together are lighter than air. 14
17:5 The one who mocks the poor 15 insults 16 his Creator;
whoever rejoices over disaster will not go unpunished.
19:1 Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity 17
than one who is perverse in his speech 18 and is a fool. 19
1:52 He has brought down the mighty 20 from their thrones, and has lifted up those of lowly position; 21
1 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.
2 tn This is singular: “the poor person,” perhaps referring to the hypothetical one described in vv. 2-3.
3 tn Heb “one of your brothers” (so NASB); NAB “one of your kinsmen”; NRSV “a member of your community.” See the note at v. 2.
4 tn Heb “gates.”
5 tn Heb “withdraw your hand.” Cf. NIV “hardhearted or tightfisted” (NRSV and NLT similar).
6 tn Heb “from your needy brother.”
7 tn Heb “your eye.”
8 tn Heb “your needy brother.”
9 tn Heb “give” (likewise in v. 10).
10 tn Heb “it will be a sin to you.”
11 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “make sure.”
12 tn Heb “your brother.”
13 tn Heb “only a breath [are] the sons of mankind, a lie [are] the sons of man.” The phrases “sons of mankind” and “sons of man” also appear together in Ps 49:2. Because of the parallel line there, where “rich and poor” are mentioned, a number of interpreters and translators treat these expressions as polar opposites, בְּנֵי אָדָם (bÿney ’adam) referring to the lower classes and בְּנֵי אִישׁ (bÿney ’ish) to higher classes. But usage does not support such a view. The rare phrase בְּנֵי אִישׁ (“sons of man”) appears to refer to human beings in general in its other uses (see Pss 4:2; Lam 3:33). It is better to understand the phrases as synonymous expressions.
14 tn The noun הֶבֶל (hevel), translated “a breath” earlier in the verse, appears again here.
15 sn The parallelism helps define the subject matter: The one who “mocks the poor” (NAB, NASB, NIV) is probably one who “rejoices [NIV gloats] over disaster.” The poverty is hereby explained as a disaster that came to some. The topic of the parable is the person who mocks others by making fun of their misfortune.
16 sn The Hebrew word translated “insults” (חֵרֵף, kheref) means “reproach; taunt” (as with a cutting taunt); it describes words that show contempt for or insult God. The idea of reproaching the Creator may be mistaking and blaming God’s providential control of the world (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 337). W. G. Plaut, however, suggests that mocking the poor means holding up their poverty as a personal failure and thus offending their dignity and their divine nature (Proverbs, 187).
17 sn People should follow honesty even if it leads to poverty (e.g., Prov 18:23; 19:22).
18 tn Heb “lips.” The term “lips” is a metonymy for what one says with his lips. The expression “perverse in his lips” refers to speech that is morally perverted. Some medieval Hebrew
19 tc The Syriac and Tg. Prov 19:1 read “rich” instead of MT “fool.” This makes tighter antithetical parallelism than MT and is followed by NAB. However, the MT makes sense as it stands; this is an example of metonymical parallelism. The MT reading is also supported by the LXX. The Hebrew construction uses וְהוּא (vÿhu’), “and he [is],” before “fool.” This may be rendered “one who is perverse while a fool” or “a fool at the same time.”
20 tn Or “rulers.”
21 tn Or “those of humble position”