17:25 A foolish child is a grief 1 to his father,
and bitterness to the mother who bore him. 2
23:25 May your father and your mother have joy;
may she who bore you rejoice. 3
17:17 A friend 4 loves at all times,
and a relative 5 is born to help in adversity. 6
17:21 Whoever brings a fool 7 into the world 8 does so 9 to his grief,
and the father of a fool has no joy. 10
23:22 Listen to your father who begot you,
and do not despise your mother when she is old.
23:24 The father of a righteous person will rejoice greatly; 11
whoever fathers a wise child 12 will have joy in him.
27:1 Do not boast 13 about tomorrow; 14
for you do not know 15 what a day may bring forth.
1 sn The Hebrew noun means “vexation, anger, grief.”
2 tn Heb “to the one who bore him.” Because the participle is feminine singular in Hebrew, this has been translated as “the mother who bore him.”
3 tn The form תָגֵל (tagel) is clearly a short form and therefore a jussive (“may she…rejoice”); if this second verb is a jussive, then the parallel יִשְׂמַח (yismakh) should be a jussive also (“may your father and your mother have joy”).
5 sn The verse uses synonymous parallelism, so “friend” and “relative” are equated. Others, however, will take the verse with antithetical parallelism: W. G. Plaut argues that friendship is a spiritual relationship whereas a brother’s ties are based on a blood relationship – often adversity is the only thing that brings brothers together (Proverbs, 189).
6 tn Heb “a brother.”
7 tn Heb “is born for adversity.” This is not referring to sibling rivalry but to the loyalty a brother shows during times of calamity. This is not to say that a brother only shows loyalty when there is trouble, nor that he always does in these times (e.g., 18:19, 24; 19:7; 27:10). The true friend is the same as a brotherly relation – in times of greatest need the loyal love is displayed.
7 sn Here the Hebrew terms כְּסִיל (kÿsil) and נָבָל (naval) are paired. The first one, which occurs about fifty times in the book, refers to a dullard, whether it be in spiritual, intellectual, or moral matters. The second word, rare in the book, primarily focuses on religious folly – it refers to the practical atheist, the one who lives as if there is no God.
8 tn The form simply means “bears” or “gives birth to,” but since it is masculine it could be rendered “fathers” (cf. NASB “he who begets a fool”; NIV “To have a fool for a son”). The form for “fool” is masculine, but the proverb is not limited only to male children (cf. NCV “It is sad to have a foolish child”).
9 tn The phrase “does so” is supplied for the sake of clarification.
10 sn Parents of fools, who had hoped for children who would be a credit to the family, find only bitter disappointment (cf. TEV “nothing but sadness and sorrow”).
9 tc The Qere reading has the imperfect יָגִיל (yagil) with the cognate accusative גִּיל (gil) which intensifies the meaning and the specific future of this verb.
10 tn The term “child” is supplied for the masculine singular adjective here.
11 tn The form אַל־תִּתְהַלֵּל (’al-tithallel) is the Hitpael jussive negated; it is from the common verb “to praise,” and so in this setting means “to praise oneself” or “to boast.”
12 sn The word “tomorrow” is a metonymy of subject, meaning what will be done tomorrow, or in the future in general.
13 sn The expression “you do not know” balances the presumption of the first line, reminding the disciple of his ignorance and therefore his need for humility (e.g., Matt 6:34; Luke 12:20; Jas 4:13-16).