4:13 Hold on to instruction, 1 do not let it go;
protect it, 2 because it is your life.
18:9 The one who 3 is slack 4 in his work
is a brother 5 to one who destroys. 6
1 tn Heb “discipline.”
2 tn The form נִצְּרֶהָ (nitsÿreha, from נָצַר, natsar) has an anomalous doubled letter (see GKC 73 §20.h).
3 tn Heb “Also, the one who.” Many commentators and a number of English versions omit the word “also.”
4 tn The form מִתְרַפֶּה (mitrappeh) is the Hitpael participle, “showing oneself slack.” The verb means “to sink; to relax,” and in the causative stem “to let drop” the hands. This is the lazy person who does not even try to work.
5 sn These two troubling types, the slacker and the destroyer, are closely related.
6 tn Heb “possessor of destruction.” This idiom means “destroyer” (so ASV); KJV “a great waster”; NRSV “a vandal.”