4:16 For they cannot sleep unless they cause harm; 1
they are robbed of sleep 2 until they make someone stumble. 3
2:1 Those who devise sinful plans are as good as dead, 4
those who dream about doing evil as they lie in bed. 5
As soon as morning dawns they carry out their plans, 6
because they have the power to do so.
3:15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood,
1 sn The verb is רָעַע (ra’a’), which means “to do evil; to harm.” The verse is using the figure of hyperbole to stress the preoccupation of some people with causing trouble. R. L. Alden says, “How sick to find peace only at the price of another man’s misfortune” (Proverbs, 47).
2 sn Heb “their sleep is robbed/seized”; these expressions are metonymical for their restlessness in plotting evil.
3 sn The Hiphil imperfect (Kethib) means “cause to stumble.” This idiom (from hypocatastasis) means “bring injury/ruin to someone” (BDB 505-6 s.v. כָּשַׁל Hiph.1).
4 tn Heb “Woe to those who plan sin.” The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe”; “ah”) was a cry used in mourning the dead.
5 tn Heb “those who do evil upon their beds.”
6 tn Heb “at the light of morning they do it.”