Proverbs 12:20

12:20 Deceit is in the heart of those who plot evil, ¹ 

but those who promote peace ²  have joy.

Proverbs 12:25

12:25 Anxiety ³  in a person’s heart ⁴  weighs him down, ⁵ 

but an encouraging ⁶  word brings him joy. ⁷ 

Proverbs 14:33

14:33 Wisdom rests in the heart of the discerning;

it is known ⁸  even in the heart ⁹  of fools.

Proverbs 19:21

19:21 There are many plans ¹⁰  in a person’s mind, ¹¹ 

but it ¹²  is the counsel ¹³  of the Lord which will stand.

Proverbs 20:5

20:5 Counsel ¹⁴  in a person’s heart ¹⁵  is like ¹⁶  deep water, ¹⁷ 

but an understanding person ¹⁸  draws it out.

Proverbs 22:15

22:15 Folly is bound up ¹⁹  in the heart of a child, ²⁰ 

but the rod of discipline ²¹  will drive it far from him.

Proverbs 23:34

23:34 And you will be like one who lies down in the midst ²²  of the sea,

and like one who lies down on the top of the rigging. ²³ 

[12:20]  ¹ sn The contrast here is between “evil” (= pain and calamity) and “peace” (= social wholeness and well-being); see, e.g., Pss 34:14 and 37:37.

[12:20]  ² tn Heb “those who are counselors of peace.” The term שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “peace”) is an objective genitive, so the genitive-construct “counselors of peace” means those who advise, advocate or promote peace (cf. NAB, NIV).

[12:25]  ³ tn The word “anxiety” (דְּאָגָה, dÿ’agah) combines anxiety and fear – anxious fear (e.g., Jer 49:23; Ezek 4:16); and for the verb (e.g., Ps 38:18; Jer 17:8).

[12:25]  ⁴ tn Heb “the heart of a man.”

[12:25]  ⁵ tn Heb “bows it [= his heart] down.” Anxiety weighs heavily on the heart, causing depression. The spirit is brought low.

[12:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “good.” The Hebrew word “good” (טוֹב, tov) refers to what is beneficial for life, promotes life, creates life or protects life. The “good word” here would include encouragement, kindness, and insight – the person needs to regain the proper perspective on life and renew his confidence.

[12:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “makes it [= his heart] glad.” The similarly sounding terms יַשְׁחֶנָּה (yashkhennah, “weighs it down”) and יְשַׂמְּחֶנָּה (yÿsammÿkhennah, “makes it glad”) create a wordplay (paronomasia) that dramatically emphasizes the polar opposite emotional states: depression versus joy.

[14:33]  ⁵ tn The LXX negates the clause, saying it is “not known in fools” (cf. NAB, NRSV, TEV, NLT). Thomas connects the verb to the Arabic root wd` and translates it “in fools it is suppressed.” See D. W. Thomas, “The Root ידע in Hebrew,” JTS 35 (1934): 302-3.

[14:33]  ⁶ tn Heb “in the inner part”; ASV “in the inward part”; NRSV “in the heart of fools.”

[19:21]  ⁷ sn The plans (from the Hebrew verb חָשַׁב [khashav], “to think; to reckon; to devise”) in the human heart are many. But only those which God approves will succeed.

[19:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “in the heart of a man” (cf. NAB, NIV). Here “heart” is used for the seat of thoughts, plans, and reasoning, so the translation uses “mind.” In contemporary English “heart” is more often associated with the seat of emotion than with the seat of planning and reasoning.

[19:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “but the counsel of the Lord, it will stand.” The construction draws attention to the “counsel of the Lord”; it is an independent nominative absolute, and the resumptive independent pronoun is the formal subject of the verb.

[19:21]  ¹⁰ tn The antithetical parallelism pairs “counsel” with “plans.” “Counsel of the Lord” (עֲצַת יְהוָה, ’atsat yehvah) is literally “advice” or “counsel” with the connotation of “plan” in this context (cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT “purpose”; NCV “plan”; TEV “the Lord’s will”).

[20:5]  ⁹ sn The noun means “advice, counsel”; it can have the connotation of planning or making decisions. Those with understanding can sort out plans.

[20:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in the heart of a man”; NRSV “in the human mind.”

[20:5]  ¹¹ tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.

[20:5]  ¹² sn The motives or plans of a person are “difficult to fathom”; it takes someone with understanding to discover and surface them (the verb in the last colon continues the figure with the sense of bringing the plans to the surface and sorting them out).

[20:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “a man of understanding”; TEV “someone with insight”; NLT “the wise.”

[22:15]  ¹¹ sn The passive participle is figurative (implied comparison with “binding”); it means that folly forms part of a child’s nature (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 238).

[22:15]  ¹² tn The “heart of a child” (לֶב־נָעַר, lev-na’ar) refers here to the natural inclination of a child to foolishness. The younger child is meant in this context, but the word can include youth. R. N. Whybray suggests that this idea might be described as a doctrine of “original folly” (Proverbs [CBC], 125). Cf. TEV “Children just naturally do silly, careless things.”

[22:15]  ¹³ tn The word “rod” is a metonymy of adjunct; it represents physical chastening for direction or punishment, to suppress folly and develop potential. The genitive (“discipline”) may be taken as an attributive genitive (“a chastening rod”) or an objective genitive, (“a rod [= punishment] that brings about correction/discipline”).

[23:34]  ¹³ tn Heb “heart.” The idiom here means “middle”; KJV “in the midst.”

[23:34]  ¹⁴ sn The point of these similes is to compare being drunk with being seasick. One who tries to sleep when at sea, or even worse, when up on the ropes of the mast, will be tossed back and forth.