14:1 Every wise woman 1 builds 2 her household, 3
but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands.
24:3 By 4 wisdom a house is built, 5
and through understanding it is established;
24:4 by knowledge its rooms are filled
with all kinds of precious and pleasing treasures.
24:2 for their hearts contemplate violence,
and their lips speak harm. 6
7:16 I have spread my bed with elegant coverings, 7
with richly colored fabric 8 from Egypt.
7:26 for she has brought down 9 many fatally wounded,
and all those she has slain are many. 10
7:24 “Everyone 11 who hears these words of mine and does them is like 12 a wise man 13 who built his house on rock. 7:25 The rain fell, the flood 14 came, and the winds beat against that house, but it did not collapse because it had been founded on rock. 7:26 Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 7:27 The rain fell, the flood came, and the winds beat against that house, and it collapsed; it was utterly destroyed!” 15
1 tn Heb “wise ones of women.” The construct phrase חַכְמוֹת נָשִׁים (khakhmot nashim) features a wholistic genitive: “wise women.” The plural functions in a distributive sense: “every wise woman.” The contrast is between wise and foolish women (e.g., Prov 7:10-23; 31:10-31).
2 tn The perfect tense verb in the first colon functions in a gnomic sense, while the imperfect tense in the second colon is a habitual imperfect.
3 tn Heb “house.” This term functions as a synecdoche of container (= house) for contents (= household, family).
4 tn The preposition בְּ (bet, “by; through”) in these two lines indicates means.
5 sn The twentieth saying, vv. 3-4, concerns the use of wisdom for domestic enterprises. In Prov 9:1 wisdom was personified as a woman who builds a house; but here the emphasis is primarily on the building – it is a sign of security and prosperity (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 442). One could still make a secondary application from this line for a household or “family” (cf. NCV, which sees this as a reference to the family).
7 sn This nineteenth saying warns against evil associations. Evil people are obsessed with destruction and trouble. See on this theme 1:10-19; 3:31 and 23:17. D. Kidner observes that a close view of sinners is often a good antidote to envying them (Proverbs [TOTC], 153).
10 tn Heb “with spreads.” The sentence begins with the cognate accusative: “with spreads I have spread my bed.” The construction enhances the idea – she has covered her bed.
11 tn The feminine noun means “dark-hued stuffs” (BDB 310 s.v. חֲטֻבוֹת). The form is a passive participle from a supposed root II חָטַב (khatav), which in Arabic means to be of a turbid, dusky color mixed with yellowish red. Its Aramaic cognate means “variegated”; cf. NAB “with brocaded cloths of Egyptian linen.” BDB’s translation of this colon is unsatifactory: “with dark hued stuffs of yarn from Egypt.”
13 tn Heb “she has caused to fall.”
14 tn Heb “numerous” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT) or “countless.”
16 tn Grk “Therefore everyone.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated.
17 tn Grk “will be like.” The same phrase occurs in v. 26.
18 tn Here and in v. 26 the Greek text reads ἀνήρ (anhr), while the parallel account in Luke 6:47-49 uses ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") in vv. 48 and 49.
19 tn Grk “the rivers.”
22 tn Grk “and great was its fall.”