Proverbs 10:11

10:11 The teaching ¹  of the righteous is a fountain of life, ² 

but the speech ³  of the wicked conceals ⁴  violence. ⁵ 

Proverbs 10:21

10:21 The teaching ⁶  of the righteous feeds ⁷  many,

but fools die ⁸  for lack of wisdom. ⁹ 

Proverbs 15:7

15:7 The lips of the wise spread ¹⁰  knowledge,

but not so the heart of fools. ¹¹ 

Proverbs 15:23

15:23 A person has joy ¹²  in giving an appropriate answer, ¹³ 

and a word at the right time ¹⁴  – how good it is!

Proverbs 20:15

20:15 There is gold, and an abundance of rubies,

but ¹⁵  words of knowledge ¹⁶  are like ¹⁷  a precious jewel.

Proverbs 26:3

26:3 A whip for the horse and a bridle for the donkey,

and a rod for the backs of fools! ¹⁸ 

Exodus 10:12

10:12 The Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand over the land of Egypt for ¹⁹  the locusts, that they may come up over the land of Egypt and eat everything that grows ²⁰  in the ground, everything that the hail has left.”

Isaiah 50:4

The Servant Perseveres

50:4 The sovereign Lord has given me the capacity to be his spokesman, ²¹ 

so that I know how to help the weary. ²² 

He wakes me up every morning;

he makes me alert so I can listen attentively as disciples do. ²³ 

Luke 4:22

4:22 All ²⁴  were speaking well of him, and were amazed at the gracious words coming out of his mouth. They ²⁵  said, “Isn’t this ²⁶  Joseph’s son?”

[10:11]  ¹ tn Heb “mouth.” The word “mouth” is metonymy of cause, representing what the righteous say and teach.

[10:11]  ² tn Heb “a fountain of life is the mouth of the righteous” (NAB similar). The subject (“a fountain of life”) and the predicate (“the mouth of the righteous”) in the Hebrew text are reversed in the present translation (as in most English versions) for the sake of clarity and smoothness. The idea of this metaphor, “the fountain of life,” may come from Ps 36:9 (e.g., also Prov 13:14; 14:27; 16:22). What the righteous say is beneficial to life or life-giving. Their words are life-giving but the words of the wicked are violent. See R. B. Y. Scott, “Wise and Foolish, Righteous and Wicked,” VT 29 (1972): 145-65.

[10:11]  ³ tn Heb “the mouth.” The term פֶּה (peh, “mouth”) functions as a metonymy of cause for speech.

[10:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “covers.” Behind the speech of the wicked is aggressive violence (W. McKane, Proverbs [OTL], 422).

[10:11]  ⁵ tn The syntax of this line is ambiguous. The translation takes “the mouth of the wicked” as the nominative subject and “violence” as the accusative direct object; however, the subject might be “violence,” hence: “violence covers the mouth of the wicked.”

[10:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “lips.” The term “lips” functions as a metonymy of cause for what is said (or in this case taught).

[10:21]  ⁷ tn The verb רָעָה (ra’ah) means “to feed” or “to shepherd” (e.g., Gen 48:15). What they say will meet the needs of many.

[10:21]  ⁸ tn In what sense the fool “dies” is unclear. Fools ruin their lives and the lives of others by their lack of discipline and knowledge. The contrast is between enhancing life and ruining life.

[10:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “heart.” The term לֵב (lev, “heart”) functions as a metonymy of association for wisdom and knowledge (BDB 524 s.v. 3.a).

[15:7]  ¹⁰ tc The verb of the first colon is difficult because it does not fit the second very well – a heart does not “scatter” or “spread” knowledge. On the basis of the LXX, C. H. Toy (Proverbs [ICC], 305) suggests a change to יִצְּרוּ (yitsÿru, “they preserve”). The Greek evidence, however, is not strong. For the second line the LXX has “hearts of fools are not safe,” apparently taking לֹא־כֵן (lo’-khen) as “unstable” instead of “not so.” So it seems futile to use the Greek version to modify the first colon to make a better parallel, when the Greek has such a different reading in the second colon anyway.

[15:7]  ¹¹ sn The phrase “the heart of fools” emphasizes that fools do not comprehend knowledge. Cf. NCV “there is no knowledge in the thoughts of fools.”

[15:23]  ¹² tn Heb “joy to the man” or “the man has joy.”

[15:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “in the answer of his mouth” (so ASV); NASB “in an apt answer.” The term “mouth” is a metonymy of cause for what he says. But because the parallelism is loosely synonymous, the answer given here must be equal to the good word spoken in season. So it is an answer that is proper or fitting.

[15:23]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in its season.” To say the right thing at the right time is useful; to say the right thing at the wrong time is counterproductive.

[20:15]  ¹⁵ tn The verse is usually taken as antithetical parallelism: There may be gold and rubies but the true gem is knowledge. However, C. H. Toy arranges it differently: “store of gold and wealth of corals and precious vessels – all are wise lips” (Proverbs [ICC], 388). But this uses the gems as metaphors for wise speech, and does not stress the contrast between wealth and wisdom.

[20:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “lips of knowledge.” The term “lips” is a metonymy for speaking, and “knowledge” could be either an attributive genitive or objective genitive: “knowledgeable lips.” Lips that impart knowledge are the true jewel to be sought.

[20:15]  ¹⁷ tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[26:3]  ¹⁸ sn A fool must be disciplined by force like an animal – there is no reasoning. The fool is as difficult to manage as the donkey or horse.

[10:12]  ¹⁹ tn The preposition בְּ (bet) is unexpected here. BDB 91 s.v. (the note at the end of the entry) says that in this case it can only be read as “with the locusts,” meaning that the locusts were thought to be implicit in Moses’ lifting up of his hand. However, BDB prefers to change the preposition to לְ (lamed).

[10:12]  ²⁰ tn The noun עֵשֶּׂב (’esev) normally would indicate cultivated grains, but in this context seems to indicate plants in general.

[50:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “has given to me a tongue of disciples.”

[50:4]  ²² tc Heb “to know [?] the weary with a word.” Comparing it with Arabic and Aramaic cognates yields the meaning of “help, sustain.” Nevertheless, the meaning of עוּת (’ut) is uncertain. The word occurs only here in the OT (see BDB 736 s.v.). Various scholars have suggested an emendation to עָנוֹת (’anot) from עָנָה (’anah, “answer”): “so that I know how to respond kindly to the weary.” Since the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a and the Vulgate support the MT reading, that reading is retained.

[50:4]  ²³ tn Heb “he arouses for me an ear, to hear like disciples.”

[4:22]  ²⁴ tn Grk “And all.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[4:22]  ²⁵ tn Grk “And they.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[4:22]  ²⁶ sn The form of the question assumes a positive reply. It really amounts to an objection, as Jesus’ response in the next verses shows. Jesus spoke smoothly and impressively. He made a wonderful declaration, but could a local carpenter’s son make such an offer? That was their real question.