2 Samuel 6:20-21

6:20 When David went home to pronounce a blessing on his own house, ¹  Michal, Saul’s daughter, came out to meet him. ²  She said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished ³  himself this day! He has exposed himself today before his servants’ slave girls the way a vulgar fool ⁴  might do!”

6:21 David replied to Michal, “It was before the Lord! I was celebrating before the Lord, who chose me over your father and his entire family ⁵  and appointed me as leader over the Lord’s people Israel.

2 Samuel 13:13

13:13 How could I ever be rid of my humiliation? And you would be considered one of the fools ⁶  in Israel! Just ⁷  speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you.”

2 Samuel 24:10

24:10 David felt guilty ⁸  after he had numbered the army. David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly by doing this! Now, O Lord, please remove the guilt of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”

2 Samuel 24:2

24:2 The king told Joab, the general in command of his army, “Go through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beer Sheba and muster the army, so I may know the size of the army.”

2 Samuel 16:9

16:9 Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head!”

Proverbs 9:6

9:6 Abandon your foolish ways ⁹  so that you may live, ¹⁰ 

and proceed ¹¹  in the way of understanding.”

Proverbs 9:13

9:13 The woman called Folly ¹²  is brash, ¹³ 

she is naive ¹⁴  and does not know ¹⁵  anything. ¹⁶ 

Matthew 25:2

25:2 Five ¹⁷  of the virgins ¹⁸  were foolish, and five were wise.

[6:20]  ¹ tn Heb “and David returned to bless his house.”

[6:20]  ² tn Heb “David.” The name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[6:20]  ³ tn Heb “honored.”

[6:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “one of the foolish ones.”

[6:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “all his house”; CEV “anyone else in your family.”

[13:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “and you will be like one of the fools.”

[13:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “Now.”

[24:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the heart of David struck him.”

[9:6]  ⁹ tn There are two ways to take this word: either as “fools” or as “foolish ways.” The spelling for “foolishness” in v. 13 differs from this spelling, and so some have taken that as an indicator that this should be “fools.” But this could still be an abstract plural here as in 1:22. Either the message is to forsake fools (i.e., bad company; cf. KJV, TEV) or forsake foolishness (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, NLT).

[9:6]  ¹⁰ tn The two imperatives are joined with vav; this is a volitive sequence in which result or consequence is expressed.

[9:6]  ¹¹ tn The verb means “go straight, go on, advance” or “go straight on in the way of understanding” (BDB 80 s.v. אָשַׁר).

[9:13]  ¹² tn Heb “a woman of foolishness.” This could be translated as “foolish woman,” taking the genitive as attributive (cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV). But in view of the contrast with the personification of wisdom, this word probably also represents a personification and so can be taken as a genitive of apposition, the woman who is folly, or “the woman, Folly” (cf. NIV). For clarity and stylistic reasons the word “called” has been supplied in the translation.

[9:13]  ¹³ tn The meaning of the word comes close to “riotous.” W. McKane describes her as restless and rootless (Proverbs [OTL], 366).

[9:13]  ¹⁴ tn The noun means “foolishness” (cf. KJV “simple”; NAB “inane”). Here it could be classified as a metonymy of adjunct, or as a predictive apposition (when a substantive is used in place of a noun; see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 15, §67).

[9:13]  ¹⁵ tn The ignorance here in Proverbs must be moral ignorance. But see D. W. Thomas for the idea that the verb means “become still,” “be at rest,” yielding here the idea of restless (“A Note on בַל־יָדְעָה in Proverbs 9¹³,” JTS 4 [1953]: 23-24).

[9:13]  ¹⁶ tc The text of v. 13 has been difficult for translators. The MT has, “The foolish woman is boisterous, simplicity, and knows not what.” The LXX reads, “A foolish and impudent woman comes to lack a morsel, she who knows not shame.” The Syriac has, “a woman lacking in discretion, seductive.” Tg. Prov 9:13 translates it, “a foolish woman and a gadabout, ignorant, and she knows not good.” The Vulgate has, “a woman foolish and noisy, and full of wiles, and knowing nothing at all.”

[25:2]  ¹⁷ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[25:2]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “Five of them.”