Proverbs 10:26

10:26 Like vinegar to the teeth and like smoke to the eyes, ¹ 

so is the sluggard to those ²  who send him.

Proverbs 15:7

15:7 The lips of the wise spread ³  knowledge,

but not so the heart of fools. ⁴ 

Proverbs 26:14

26:14 Like ⁵  a door that turns on its hinges, ⁶ 

so a sluggard turns ⁷  on his bed.

Proverbs 26:21

26:21 Like charcoal is to burning coals, and wood to fire,

so is a contentious person ⁸  to kindle strife. ⁹ 

Proverbs 30:33

30:33 For as the churning ¹⁰  of milk produces butter

and as punching the nose produces blood,

so stirring up anger ¹¹  produces strife. ¹² 

[10:26]  ¹ sn Two similes are used to portray the aggravation in sending a lazy person to accomplish a task. Vinegar to the teeth is an unpleasant, irritating experience; and smoke to the eyes is an unpleasant experience that hinders progress.

[10:26]  ² tn The participle is plural, and so probably should be taken in a distributive sense: “to each one who sends him.”

[15:7]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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.”

[26:14]  ⁵ tn The comparative “like” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied from context in the translation.

[26:14]  ⁶ sn The sluggard is too lazy to get out of bed – although he would probably rationalize this by saying that he is not at his best in the morning. The humor of the verse is based on an analogy with a door – it moves back and forth on its hinges but goes nowhere. Like the door to the wall, the sluggard is “hinged” to his bed (e.g., Prov 6:9-10; 24:33).

[26:14]  ⁷ tn The term “turns” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation from the parallelism.

[26:21]  ⁷ sn Heb “a man of contentions”; NCV, NRSV, NLT “a quarrelsome person.” The expression focuses on the person who is contentious by nature. His quarreling is like piling fuel on a fire that would otherwise go out. This kind of person not only starts strife, but keeps it going.

[26:21]  ⁸ tn The Pilpel infinitive construct לְחַרְחַר (lÿkharkhar) from חָרַר (kharar, “to be hot; to be scorched; to burn”) means “to kindle; to cause to flare up.”

[30:33]  ⁹ tn This line provides the explanation for the instruction to keep silent in the previous verse. It uses two images to make the point, and in so doing repeats two words throughout. The first is the word מִיץ (mits), which is translated (in sequence) “churning,” “punching,” and “stirring up.” The form is a noun, and BDB 568 s.v. suggests translating it as “squeezing” in all three places, even in the last where it describes the pressure or the insistence on strife. This noun occurs only here. The second repeated word, the verb יוֹצִיא (yotsir), also occurs three times; it is the Hiphil imperfect, meaning “produces” (i.e., causes to go out).

[30:33]  ¹⁰ sn There is a subtle wordplay here with the word for anger: It is related to the word for nose in the preceding colon.

[30:33]  ¹¹ sn The analogy indicates that continuously pressing certain things will yield results, some good, some bad. So pressing anger produces strife. The proverb advises people to strive for peace and harmony through humility and righteousness. To do that will require “letting up” on anger.