8:10 Receive my instruction 1 rather than 2 silver,
and knowledge rather than choice gold.
8:11 For wisdom is better than rubies,
and desirable things cannot be compared 3 to her.
8:12 “I, wisdom, live with prudence, 4
and I find 5 knowledge and discretion.
8:13 The fear of the Lord is to hate 6 evil;
I hate arrogant pride 7 and the evil way
and perverse utterances. 8
1 tn Heb “discipline.” The term refers to instruction that trains with discipline (e.g., Prov 1:2).
2 tn Heb “and not” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “in preference to.”
3 tn The verb יִשְׁווּ (yishvu, from שָׁוָה, shavah) can be rendered “are not comparable” or in a potential nuance “cannot be compared” with her.
5 tn The noun is “shrewdness,” i.e., the right use of knowledge in special cases (see also the discussion in 1:4); cf. NLT “good judgment.” The word in this sentence is an adverbial accusative of specification.
6 tn This verb form is an imperfect, whereas the verb in the first colon was a perfect tense. The perfect should be classified as a gnomic perfect, and this form a habitual imperfect, because both verbs describe the nature of wisdom.
7 tn The verb שָׂנֵא (sane’) means “to hate.” In this sentence it functions nominally as the predicate. Fearing the
8 tn Since both גֵּאָה (ge’ah, “pride”) and גָּאוֹן (ga’on, “arrogance; pride”) are both from the same verbal root גָּאָה (ga’ah, “to rise up”), they should here be interpreted as one idea, forming a nominal hendiadys: “arrogant pride.”
9 tn Heb “and a mouth of perverse things.” The word “mouth” is a metonymy of cause for what is said; and the noun תַהְפֻּכוֹת (tahpukhot, “perverse things”) means destructive things (the related verb is used for the overthrowing of Sodom).