Proverbs 13:20

13:20 The one who associates ¹  with the wise grows wise,

but a companion of fools suffers harm. ² 

Proverbs 18:4

18:4 The words of a person’s mouth are like ³  deep waters, ⁴ 

and ⁵  the fountain of wisdom ⁶  is like ⁷  a flowing brook. ⁸ 

Mark 4:11

4:11 He said to them, “The secret ⁹  of the kingdom of God has been given ¹⁰  to you. But to those outside, everything is in parables,

Mark 4:34

4:34 He did not speak to them without a parable. But privately he explained everything to his own disciples.

John 15:15

15:15 I no longer call you slaves, ¹¹  because the slave does not understand ¹²  what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have revealed to you everything ¹³  I heard ¹⁴  from my Father.

James 1:5

1:5 But if anyone is deficient in wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without reprimand, and it will be given to him.

¹ tn Heb “walks.” When used with the preposition אֶת (’et, “with”), the verb הָלַךְ (halakh, “to walk”) means “to associate with” someone (BDB 234 s.v. הָלַךְ II.3.b; e.g., Mic 6:8; Job 34:8). The active participle of הָלַךְ (“to walk”) stresses continual, durative action. One should stay in close association with the wise, and move in the same direction they do.

² tn The verb form יֵרוֹעַ (yeroa’) is the Niphal imperfect of רָעַע (ra’a’), meaning “to suffer hurt.” Several have attempted to parallel the repetition in the wordplay of the first colon. A. Guillaume has “he who associates with fools will be left a fool” (“A Note on the Roots רִיע, יָרַע, and רָעַע in Hebrew,” JTS 15 [1964]: 294). Knox translated the Vulgate thus: “Fool he ends that fool befriends” (cited by D. Kidner, Proverbs [TOTC], 104).

³ tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

⁴ sn The metaphor “deep waters” indicates either that the words have an inexhaustible supply or that they are profound.

⁵ tn There is debate about the nature of the parallelism between lines 4a and 4b. The major options are: (1) synonymous parallelism, (2) antithetical parallelism (e.g., NAB, NIV, NCV) or (3) formal parallelism. Normally a vav (ו) would begin an antithetical clause; the structure and the ideas suggest that the second colon continues the idea of the first half, but in a parallel way rather than as additional predicates. The metaphors used in the proverb elsewhere describe the wise.

⁶ sn This is an implied comparison (hypocatastasis), the fountain of wisdom being the person who speaks. The Greek version has “fountain of life” instead of “wisdom,” probably influenced from 10:11.

⁷ tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.

⁸ sn The point of this metaphor is that the wisdom is a continuous source of refreshing and beneficial ideas.

⁹ tn Grk “the mystery.”

¹⁰ tn This is an example of a “divine passive,” with God understood to be the source of the revelation (see ExSyn 437-38).

¹¹ tn See the note on the word “slaves” in 4:51.

¹² tn Or “does not know.”

¹³ tn Grk “all things.”

¹⁴ tn Or “learned.”