11:8 The righteous person is delivered 1 out of trouble,
and the wicked turns up in his stead. 2
13:6 Righteousness 3 guards the one who lives with integrity, 4
but wickedness 5 overthrows the sinner.
14:2 The one who walks in his uprightness fears the Lord, 6
but the one who is perverted in his ways 7 despises him.
15:8 The Lord abhors 8 the sacrifices 9 of the wicked, 10
but the prayer 11 of the upright pleases him. 12
16:17 The highway 13 of the upright is to turn 14 away from evil;
the one who guards 15 his way safeguards his life. 16
1 tn The verb is the Niphal perfect from the first root חָלַץ (khalats), meaning “to draw off; to withdraw,” and hence “to be delivered.”
2 tn The verb is masculine singular, so the subject cannot be “trouble.” The trouble from which the righteous escape will come on the wicked – but the Hebrew text literally says that the wicked “comes [= arrives; turns up; shows up] in the place of the righteous.” Cf. NASB “the wicked takes his place”; NRSV “the wicked get into it instead”; NIV “it comes on the wicked instead.”
3 sn Righteousness refers to that which conforms to law and order. One who behaves with integrity will be safe from consequences of sin.
4 tn Heb “blameless of way.” The term דָּרֶךְ (darekh) is a genitive of specification: “blameless in respect to his way.” This means living above reproach in their course of life. Cf. NASB “whose way is blameless”; NAB “who walks honestly.”
5 sn Righteousness and wickedness are personified in this proverb to make the point of security and insecurity for the two courses of life.
6 tn Heb “fear of the
7 tn Heb “crooked of ways”; NRSV “devious in conduct.” This construct phrase features a genitive of specification: “crooked in reference to his ways.” The term “ways” is an idiom for moral conduct. The evidence that people fear the
8 tn Heb “an abomination of the
9 tn Heb “sacrifice” (so many English versions).
10 sn The sacrifices of the wicked are hated by the
11 sn J. H. Greenstone notes that if God will accept the prayers of the upright, he will accept their sacrifices; for sacrifice is an outer ritual and easily performed even by the wicked, but prayer is a private and inward act and not usually fabricated by unbelievers (Proverbs, 162).
12 tn Heb “[is] his pleasure.” The 3rd person masculine singular suffix functions as a subjective genitive: “he is pleased.” God is pleased with the prayers of the upright.
13 sn The point of righteous living is made with the image of a highway, a raised and well-graded road (a hypocatastasis, implying a comparison between a highway and the right way of living).
14 tn The form סוּר (sur) is a Qal infinitive; it indicates that a purpose of the righteous life is to turn away from evil. “Evil” here has the sense of sinful living. So the first line asserts that the well-cared-for life avoids sin.
15 sn The second half of the verse uses two different words for “guard”; this one is נֹצֵר (notser) “the one who guards his way,” and the first is שֹׁמֵר (shomer) “the one who guards his life” (the order of the words is reversed in the translation). The second colon then explains further the first (synthetic parallelism), because to guard one’s way preserves life.
16 tc The LXX adds three lines after 17a and one after 17b: “The paths of life turn aside from evils, and the ways of righteousness are length of life; he who receives instruction will be prosperous, and he who regards reproofs will be made wise; he who guards his ways preserves his soul, and he who loves his life will spare his mouth.”