Hosea 4:5

4:5 You stumble day and night,

and the false prophets stumble with you;

You have destroyed your own people! ¹ 

Hosea 14:1

Prophetic Call to Genuine Repentance

14:1 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,

for your sin has been your downfall! ² 

Proverbs 11:5

11:5 The righteousness of the blameless will make straight their way, ³ 

but the wicked person will fall by his own wickedness. ⁴ 

Proverbs 11:21

11:21 Be assured that ⁵  the evil person will certainly be punished, ⁶ 

but the descendants of the righteous ⁷  will not suffer unjust judgment. ⁸ 

Proverbs 14:32

14:32 The wicked will be thrown down in his trouble, ⁹ 

but the righteous have refuge ¹⁰  even in the threat of death. ¹¹ 

Proverbs 24:16

24:16 Although ¹²  a righteous person may fall seven times, he gets up again,

but the wicked will be brought down ¹³  by calamity.

Amos 5:2

5:2 “The virgin ¹⁴  Israel has fallen down and will not get up again.

She is abandoned on her own land

with no one to help her get up.” ¹⁵ 

[4:5]  ¹ tc The MT reads וְדָמִיתִי אִמֶּךָ (vÿdamiti ’immekha, “and I will destroy your mother”), and is followed by most English versions; however, the text should probably be emended to וְדָמִית עַמֶּךָ (vÿdamit ’ammekha, “and you have destroyed your own people”). The 2nd person masculine singular form וְדָמִית (vÿdamit, “and you have destroyed”) is preserved in several medieval Hebrew mss and reflected in Jerome’s Vulgate. For discussion in favor of the MT reading, see D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 5:232.

[14:1]  ² tn Heb “For you have stumbled in your iniquity”; NASB, NRSV “because of your iniquity.”

[11:5]  ³ tn Heb “his way.”

[11:5]  ⁴ sn The righteous will enjoy security and serenity throughout life. Righteousness makes the path straight; wickedness destroys the wicked.

[11:21]  ⁵ tn The expression “hand to hand” refers the custom of striking hands to confirm an agreement (M. Anbar, “Proverbes 11:21; 16:15; יד ליד, «sur le champ»,” Bib 53 [1972]: 537-38). Tg. Prov 11:21 interprets it differently: “he who lifts up his hand against his neighbor will not go unpunished.”

[11:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “will not be free.” The verb נָקָה (naqah) means “to be clean; to be empty.” In the Niphal it means “to be free of guilt; to be clean; to be innocent,” and therefore “to be exempt from punishment” (BDB 667 s.v. Niph). The phrase “will not go unpunished” (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV) is an example of tapeinosis (a negative statement that emphasizes the positive opposite statement): “will certainly be punished” (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).

[11:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “the seed of the righteous.” This is an idiom that describes a class of people who share the nature of righteousness (e.g., Isa 1:4; 65:23). The word “seed” (hypocatastasis) means “offspring.” Some take it literally, as if it meant that the children of the righteous will escape judgment (Saadia, a Jewish scholar who lived a.d. 882-942). The LXX translates it in a different sense: “he that sows righteousness will receive a faithful reward.”

[11:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “will be delivered” (so NASB). The phrase “from unjust judgment” does not appear in the Hebrew but is implied by the idiom.

[14:32]  ⁹ tn The prepositional phrase must be “in his time of trouble” (i.e., when catastrophe comes). Cf. CEV “In times of trouble the wicked are destroyed.” A wicked person has nothing to fall back on in such times.

[14:32]  ¹⁰ sn The righteous have hope in a just retribution – they have a place of safety even in death.

[14:32]  ¹¹ tc The LXX reads this as “in his integrity,” as if it were בְּתוּמּוֹ (bÿtumo) instead of “in his death” (בְּמוֹתוֹ, bÿmoto). The LXX is followed by some English versions (e.g., NAB “in his honesty,” NRSV “in their integrity,” and TEV “by their integrity”).

[24:16]  ¹² tn The clause beginning with כִּי (ki) could be interpreted as causal or conditional; but in view of the significance of the next clause it seems better to take it as a concessive clause (“although”). Its verb then receives a modal nuance of possibility. The apodosis is then “and he rises up,” which could be a participle or a perfect tense; although he may fall, he gets up (or, will get up).

[24:16]  ¹³ tn The verb could be translated with an English present tense (“are brought down,” so NIV) to express what happens to the wicked in this life; but since the saying warns against being like the wicked, their destruction is more likely directed to the future.

[5:2]  ¹⁴ tn Or “young lady.” The term “Israel” is an appositional genitive.

[5:2]  ¹⁵ tn Or “with no one to lift her up.”