27:9 Does God listen to his cry
when distress overtakes him?
18:41 They cry out, but there is no one to help them; 1
they cry out to the Lord, 2 but he does not answer them.
1:25 because 3 you neglected 4 all my advice,
and did not comply 5 with my rebuke,
1:26 so 6 I myself will laugh 7 when disaster strikes you, 8
I will mock when what you dread 9 comes,
1:27 when what you dread 10 comes like a whirlwind, 11
and disaster strikes you 12 like a devastating storm, 13
when distressing trouble 14 comes on you.
1:28 Then they will call to me, but I will not answer;
they will diligently seek 15 me, but they will not find me.
21:13 The one who shuts his ears 16 to the cry 17 of the poor,
he too will cry out and will not be answered. 18
1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I look the other way; 19
when you offer your many prayers,
I do not listen,
because your hands are covered with blood. 20
3:4 Someday these sinners will cry to the Lord for help, 21
but he will not answer them.
He will hide his face from them at that time,
because they have done such wicked deeds.”
1 tn Heb “but there is no deliverer.”
2 tn Heb “to the
3 tn Heb “and.”
4 tn The verb III פָּרַע means “to let go; to let alone” (BDB 828 s.v.). It can refer to unkempt hair of the head (Lev 10:6) or lack of moral restraint: “to let things run free” (Exod 32:25; Prov 28:19). Here it means “to avoid, neglect” the offer of wisdom (BDB 829 s.v. 2).
5 tn The verbs are characteristic perfects or indefinite pasts. For the word “comply, consent,” see 1:20.
6 tn The conclusion or apodosis is now introduced.
7 sn Laughing at the consequences of the fool’s rejection of wisdom does convey hardness against the fool; it reveals the folly of rejecting wisdom (e.g., Ps 2:4). It vindicates wisdom and the appropriateness of the disaster (D. Kidner, Proverbs [TOTC], 60).
8 tn Heb “at your disaster.” The 2nd person masculine singular suffix is either (1) a genitive of worth: “the disaster due you” or (2) an objective genitive: “disaster strikes you.” The term “disaster” (אֵיד, ’ed) often refers to final life-ending calamity (Prov 6:15; 24:22; BDB 15 s.v. 3). The preposition ב (bet) focuses upon time here.
9 tn Heb “your dread” (so NASB); KJV “your fear”; NRSV “panic.” The 2nd person masculine singular suffix is a subjective genitive: “that which you dread.”
10 tn Heb “your dread.” See note on 1:31.
11 sn The term “whirlwind” (NAB, NIV, NRSV; cf. TEV, NLT “storm”) refers to a devastating storm and is related to the verb שׁוֹא (sho’, “to crash into ruins”; see BDB 996 s.v. שׁוֹאָה). Disaster will come swiftly and crush them like a devastating whirlwind.
12 tn Heb “your disaster.” The 2nd person masculine singular suffix is an objective genitive: “disaster strikes you.”
13 tn Heb “like a storm.” The noun סוּפָה (sufah, “storm”) is often used in similes to describe sudden devastation (Isa 5:28; Hos 8:7; Amos 1:14).
14 tn Heb “distress and trouble.” The nouns “distress and trouble” mean almost the same thing so they may form a hendiadys. The two similar sounding terms צוּקָה (tsuqah) and צָרָה (tsarah) also form a wordplay (paronomasia) which also links them together.
15 tn Heb “look to.” The verb שָׁחַר (shakhar, “to look”) is used figuratively of intensely looking (=seeking) for deliverance out of trouble (W. L. Holladay, Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, 366); cf. NLT “anxiously search for.” It is used elsewhere in parallelism with בָּקַשׁ (baqash, “to seek rescue”; Hos 5:15). It does not mean “to seek early” (cf. KJV) as is popularly taught due to etymological connections with the noun שַׁחַר (shakhar, “dawn”; so BDB 1007 s.v. שָׁחַר).
16 sn The imagery means “pay no attention to” the cry for help or “refuse to help,” so it is a metonymy of cause for the effect.
17 sn “Cry” here would be a metonymy of effect for the cause, the cause being the great needs of the poor.
18 sn The proverb is teaching that those who show mercy will receive mercy. It involves the principle of talionic justice – those who refuse the needs of others will themselves be refused when they need help (so Luke 16:19-31).
19 tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”
20 sn This does not just refer to the blood of sacrificial animals, but also the blood, as it were, of their innocent victims. By depriving the poor and destitute of proper legal recourse and adequate access to the economic system, the oppressors have, for all intents and purposes, “killed” their victims.
21 tn Heb “then they will cry out to the
22 tn The syntactical relationship between vv. 24-25 is disputed. The question turns on whether v. 25 is connected to v. 24 or not. A lack of a clear connective makes an independent idea more likely. However, one must then determine what the beginning of the sentence connects to. Though it makes for slightly awkward English, the translation has opted to connect it to “he will answer” so that this functions, in effect, as an apodosis. One could end the sentence after “us” and begin a new sentence with “He will answer” to make simpler sentences, although the connection between the two sentences is thereby less clear. The point of the passage, however, is clear. Once the door is shut, because one failed to come in through the narrow way, it is closed permanently. The moral: Do not be too late in deciding to respond.
23 tn Or “the master of the household.”
24 tn Or “rises,” or “stands up.”
25 tn Or “Sir.”
26 tn Grk “Open to us.”
27 tn Grk “and answering, he will say to you.” This is redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified to “he will answer you.”
28 sn For the imagery behind the statement “I do not know where you come from,” see Ps 138:6; Isa 63:16; Jer 1:5; Hos 5:3.