Discovery BoxProverbs 1:26
Context1:26 so 1 I myself will laugh 2 when disaster strikes you, 3
I will mock when what you dread 4 comes,
Proverbs 11:25
Context11:25 A generous person 5 will be enriched, 6
and the one who provides water 7 for others 8 will himself be satisfied. 9
Proverbs 14:13
Context14:13 Even in laughter the heart may ache, 10
and the end 11 of joy may be 12 grief.
Proverbs 14:20
Context14:20 A poor person is disliked 13 even by his neighbors,
but those who love the rich are many.
Proverbs 16:4
Context16:4 The Lord works 14 everything for its own ends 15 –
even the wicked for the day of disaster. 16
Proverbs 16:7
Context16:7 When a person’s 17 ways are pleasing to the Lord, 18
he 19 even reconciles his enemies to himself. 20
Proverbs 17:15
Context17:15 The one who acquits the guilty and the one who condemns the innocent 21 –
both of them are an abomination to the Lord. 22
Proverbs 17:28
Context17:28 Even a fool who remains silent is considered 23 wise,
and the one who holds his tongue is deemed discerning. 24
Proverbs 18:3
Context18:3 When a wicked person 25 arrives, contempt 26 shows up with him,
and with shame comes 27 a reproach.
Proverbs 18:9
Context18:9 The one who 28 is slack 29 in his work
is a brother 30 to one who destroys. 31
Proverbs 20:10
Context20:10 Diverse weights and diverse measures 32 –
the Lord abhors 33 both of them.
Proverbs 20:12
Context20:12 The ear that hears and the eye that sees 34 –
the Lord has made them both. 35
Proverbs 23:15
Context23:15 My child, 36 if your heart is wise,
then my heart also will be glad;
Proverbs 24:23
Context24:23 These sayings also are from the wise:
To show partiality 37 in judgment is terrible: 38
Proverbs 28:9
Context28:9 The one who turns away his ear 39 from hearing the law,
[1:26] 1 tn The conclusion or apodosis is now introduced.
[1:26] 2 sn Laughing at the consequences of the fool’s rejection of wisdom does convey hardness against the fool; it reveals the folly of rejecting wisdom (e.g., Ps 2:4). It vindicates wisdom and the appropriateness of the disaster (D. Kidner, Proverbs [TOTC], 60).
[1:26] 3 tn Heb “at your disaster.” The 2nd person masculine singular suffix is either (1) a genitive of worth: “the disaster due you” or (2) an objective genitive: “disaster strikes you.” The term “disaster” (אֵיד, ’ed) often refers to final life-ending calamity (Prov 6:15; 24:22; BDB 15 s.v. 3). The preposition ב (bet) focuses upon time here.
[1:26] 4 tn Heb “your dread” (so NASB); KJV “your fear”; NRSV “panic.” The 2nd person masculine singular suffix is a subjective genitive: “that which you dread.”
[11:25] 5 tn Heb “the soul of blessing.” The genitive functions attributively. “Blessing” refers to a gift (Gen 33:11) or a special favor (Josh 15:19). The term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul”) functions as a synecdoche of part (= soul) for the whole (= person); see BDB 660 s.v. 4.
[11:25] 6 tn Heb “will grow fat.” Drawing on the standard comparison of fatness and abundance (Deut 32:15), the term means “become rich, prosperous.”
[11:25] 7 tn The verb מַרְוֶה (marveh, “to be saturated; to drink one’s fill”) draws a comparison between providing water for others with providing for those in need (e.g., Jer 31:25; Lam 3:15). The kind act will be reciprocated.
[11:25] 8 tn The phrase “for others” does not appear in the Hebrew but is implied by the causative Hiphil verb which normally takes a direct object; it is elided in the Hebrew for the sake of emphasis. It is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.
[11:25] 9 tn This verb also means “to pour water,” and so continues the theme of the preceding participle: The one who gives refreshment to others will be refreshed. BDB 924 s.v. רָוָה lists the form יוֹרֶא (yore’) as a Hophal imperfect of רָוָה (ravah, the only occurrence) and translates it “will himself also be watered” (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB). But the verb looks very much like a Hiphil of the root יָרָא (yara’, “to shoot; to pour”). So the editors of BHS suggest יוּאָר (yu’ar).
[14:13] 9 sn No joy is completely free of grief. There is a joy that is superficial and there is underlying pain that will remain after the joy is gone.
[14:13] 10 tn Heb “and its end, joy, is grief.” The suffix may be regarded as an Aramaism, a proleptic suffix referring to “joy.”
[14:13] 11 tn The phrase “may be” is not in the Hebrew but is supplied from the parallelism, which features an imperfect of possibility.
[14:20] 13 tn Heb “hated.” The verse is just a statement of fact. The verbs “love” and “hate” must be seen in their connotations: The poor are rejected, avoided, shunned – that is, hated; but the rich are sought after, favored, embraced – that is, loved.
[16:4] 17 sn The Hebrew verb translated “works” (פָּעַל, pa’al) means “to work out; to bring about; to accomplish.” It is used of God’s sovereign control of life (e.g., Num 23:23; Isa 26:12).
[16:4] 18 tn Heb “for its answer.” The term לַמַּעֲנֵהוּ (lamma’anehu) has been taken to mean either “for his purpose” or “for its answer.” The Hebrew word is מַעֲנֶה (ma’aneh, “answer”) and not לְמַעַן (lÿma’an, “purpose”). So the suffix likely refers to “everything” (כֹּל, kol). God ensures that everyone’s actions and the consequences of those actions correspond – certainly the wicked for the day of calamity. In God’s order there is just retribution for every act.
[16:4] 19 sn This is an example of synthetic parallelism (“A, what’s more B”). The A-line affirms a truth, and the B-line expands on it with a specific application about the wicked – whatever disaster comes their way is an appropriate correspondent for their life.
[16:7] 21 tn Heb “ways of a man.”
[16:7] 22 tn The first line uses an infinitive in a temporal clause, followed by its subject in the genitive case: “in the taking pleasure of the
[16:7] 23 tn The referent of the verb in the second colon is unclear. The straightforward answer is that it refers to the person whose ways please the
[16:7] 24 tn Heb “even his enemies he makes to be at peace with him.”
[17:15] 25 tn Heb “he who justifies the wicked and and he who condemns the righteous” (so NASB). The first colon uses two Hiphil participles, מַצְדִּיק (matsdiq) and מַרְשִׁיעַ (marshia’). The first means “to declare righteous” (a declarative Hiphil), and the second means “to make wicked [or, guilty]” or “to condemn” (i.e., “to declare guilty”). To declare someone righteous who is a guilty criminal, or to condemn someone who is innocent, are both abominations for the Righteous Judge of the whole earth.
[17:15] 26 tn Heb “an abomination of the
[17:28] 29 tn The imperfect tense here denotes possibility: One who holds his tongue [may be considered] discerning.
[17:28] 30 tn The Niphal participle is used in the declarative/estimative sense with stative verbs: “to be discerning” (Qal) becomes “to be declared discerning” (Niphal). The proverb is teaching that silence is one evidence of wisdom, and that even a fool can thereby appear wise. D. Kidner says that a fool who takes this advice is no longer a complete fool (Proverbs [TOTC], 127). He does not, of course, become wise – he just hides his folly.
[18:3] 33 tc The MT has “a wicked [person].” Many commentators emend the text to רֶשַׁע (resha’, “wickedness”) which makes better parallelism with “shame” (W. McKane, Proverbs [OTL], 521; R. B. Y. Scott, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes [AB], 112; C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 355; cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV). However, there is no external evidence for this emendation.
[18:3] 34 sn “Contempt” (בּוּז, buz) accompanies the wicked; “reproach” (חֶרְפָּה, kherpah) goes with shame. This reproach refers to the critical rebukes and taunts of the community against a wicked person.
[18:3] 35 tn The term “comes” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.
[18:9] 37 tn Heb “Also, the one who.” Many commentators and a number of English versions omit the word “also.”
[18:9] 38 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.
[18:9] 39 sn These two troubling types, the slacker and the destroyer, are closely related.
[18:9] 40 tn Heb “possessor of destruction.” This idiom means “destroyer” (so ASV); KJV “a great waster”; NRSV “a vandal.”
[20:10] 41 tn The construction simply uses repetition to express different kinds of weights and measures: “a stone and a stone, an ephah and an ephah.”
[20:10] 42 tn Heb “an abomination of the
[20:12] 45 sn The first half of the verse refers to two basic senses that the
[20:12] 46 sn The verse not only credits God with making these faculties of hearing and sight and giving them to people, but it also emphasizes their spiritual use in God’s service.
[23:15] 49 tn Heb “my son,” although the context does not limit this exhortation to male children.
[24:23] 53 tn Heb “to recognize faces”; KJV, ASV “to have respect of persons”; NLT “to show favoritism.”
[24:23] 54 tn Heb “not good.” This is a figure known as tapeinosis – a deliberate understatement to emphasize a worst-case scenario: “it is terrible!”
[28:9] 57 sn The expression “turn away the ear from hearing” uses a metonymy to mean that this individual will not listen – it indicates a deliberate refusal to follow the instruction of the law.
[28:9] 58 sn It is hard to imagine how someone who willfully refuses to obey the law of God would pray according to the will of God. Such a person is more apt to pray for some physical thing or make demands on God. (Of course a prayer of repentance would be an exception and would not be an abomination to the
[28:9] 59 sn C. H. Toy says, “If a man, on his part, is deaf to instruction, then God, on his part, is deaf to prayer” (Proverbs [ICC], 499). And W. McKane observes that one who fails to attend to God’s law is a wicked person, even if he is a man of prayer (Proverbs [OTL], 623).
