Proverbs 24:13

24:13 Eat honey, ¹  my child, for it is good,

and honey from the honeycomb is sweet to your taste.

Proverbs 25:16

25:16 When you find ²  honey, eat only what is sufficient for you,

lest you become stuffed ³  with it and vomit it up. ⁴ 

Proverbs 25:27

25:27 It is not good ⁵  to eat too much honey,

nor is it honorable for people to seek their own glory. ⁶ 

Luke 21:34

Be Ready!

21:34 “But be on your guard ⁷  so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day close down upon you suddenly like a trap. ⁸ 

Acts 14:22

14:22 They strengthened ⁹  the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue ¹⁰  in the faith, saying, “We must enter the kingdom ¹¹  of God through many persecutions.” ¹² 

Acts 14:1

Paul and Barnabas at Iconium

14:1 The same thing happened in Iconium ¹³  when Paul and Barnabas ¹⁴  went into the Jewish synagogue ¹⁵  and spoke in such a way that a large group ¹⁶  of both Jews and Greeks believed.

Acts 4:2

4:2 angry ¹⁷  because they were teaching the people and announcing ¹⁸  in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.

[24:13]  ¹ sn The twenty-sixth saying teaches that one should develop wisdom because it has a profitable future. The saying draws on the image of honey; its health-giving properties make a good analogy to wisdom.

[25:16]  ² tn The verse simply begins “you have found honey.” Some turn this into an interrogative clause for the condition laid down (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NLT); most make the form in some way subordinate to the following instruction: “when you find…eat.”

[25:16]  ³ tn The verb means “to be satisfied; to be sated; to be filled.” Here it means more than satisfied, since it describes one who overindulges and becomes sick. The English verb “stuffed” conveys this idea well.

[25:16]  ⁴ sn The proverb warns that anything overindulged in can become sickening. The verse uses formal parallelism to express first the condition and then its consequences. It teaches that moderation is wise in the pleasures of life.

[25:27]  ⁵ sn This is a figure of speech known as tapeinosis – a deliberate understatement to emphasize a worst-case scenario: “it is bad!”

[25:27]  ⁶ tn Heb “and the investigation of their glory is not glory.” This line is difficult to understand but it forms an analogy to honey – glory, like honey, is good, but not to excess. The LXX rendered this, “it is proper to honor notable sayings.” A. A. MacIntosh suggests, “He who searches for glory will be distressed” (“A Note on Prov 25:27,” VT 20 [1970]: 112-14). G. E. Bryce has “to search out difficult things is glorious” (“Another Wisdom ‘Book’ in Proverbs,” JBL 91 (1972): 145-47). R. C. Van Leeuwen suggests, “to seek difficult things is as glory” (“Proverbs 25:27 Once Again,” VT 36 [1986]: 105-14). The Hebrew is cryptic, but not unintelligible: “seeking their glory [is not] glory.” It is saying that seeking one’s own glory is dishonorable.

[21:34]  ⁷ tn Grk “watch out for yourselves.”

[21:34]  ⁸ sn Or like a thief, see Luke 12:39-40. The metaphor of a trap is a vivid one. Most modern English translations traditionally place the words “like a trap” at the end of v. 34, completing the metaphor. In the Greek text (and in the NRSV and REB) the words “like a trap” are placed at the beginning of v. 35. This does not affect the meaning.

[14:22]  ⁹ tn Grk “to Antioch, strengthening.” Due to the length of the Greek sentence and the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences, a new sentence was started here. This participle (ἐπιστηρίζοντες, episthrizonte") and the following one (παρακαλοῦντες, parakalounte") have been translated as finite verbs connected by the coordinating conjunction “and.”

[14:22]  ¹⁰ sn And encouraged them to continue. The exhortations are like those noted in Acts 11:23; 13:43. An example of such a speech is found in Acts 20:18-35. Christianity is now characterized as “the faith.”

[14:22]  ¹¹ sn This reference to the kingdom of God clearly refers to its future arrival.

[14:22]  ¹² tn Or “sufferings.”

[14:1]  ¹³ sn Iconium. See the note in 13:51.

[14:1]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “they”; the referents (Paul and Barnabas) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:1]  ¹⁵ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[14:1]  ¹⁶ tn Or “that a large crowd.”

[4:2]  ¹⁷ tn Or “greatly annoyed,” “provoked.”

[4:2]  ¹⁸ tn Or “proclaiming.”