Proverbs 14:1-23

14:1 Every wise woman ¹  builds ²  her household, ³ 

but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands.

14:2 The one who walks in his uprightness fears the Lord, ⁴ 

but the one who is perverted in his ways ⁵  despises him.

14:3 In ⁶  the speech ⁷  of a fool is a rod for his back, ⁸ 

but the words ⁹  of the wise protect them.

14:4 Where there are no oxen, the feeding trough is clean,

but an abundant harvest is produced by strong oxen. ¹⁰ 

14:5 A truthful witness ¹¹  does not lie,

but a false witness ¹²  breathes out lies. ¹³ 

14:6 The scorner ¹⁴  seeks wisdom but finds none, ¹⁵ 

but understanding is easy ¹⁶  for a discerning person.

14:7 Leave the presence of a foolish person, ¹⁷ 

or ¹⁸  you will not understand ¹⁹  wise counsel. ²⁰ 

14:8 The wisdom of the shrewd person ²¹  is to discern ²²  his way,

but the folly of fools is deception. ²³ 

14:9 Fools mock ²⁴  at reparation, ²⁵ 

but among the upright there is favor. ²⁶ 

14:10 The heart knows its own bitterness, ²⁷ 

and with its joy no one else ²⁸  can share. ²⁹ 

14:11 The household ³⁰  of the wicked will be destroyed,

but the tent ³¹  of the upright will flourish.

14:12 There is a way that seems right to a person, ³² 

but its end is the way that leads to death. ³³ 

14:13 Even in laughter the heart may ache, ³⁴ 

and the end ³⁵  of joy may be ³⁶  grief.

14:14 The backslider ³⁷  will be paid back ³⁸  from his own ways,

but a good person will be rewarded ³⁹  for his.

14:15 A naive person ⁴⁰  believes everything,

but the shrewd person discerns his steps. ⁴¹ 

14:16 A wise person is cautious ⁴²  and turns from evil,

but a fool throws off restraint ⁴³  and is overconfident. ⁴⁴ 

14:17 A person who has a quick temper ⁴⁵  does foolish things,

and a person with crafty schemes ⁴⁶  is hated. ⁴⁷ 

14:18 The naive inherit ⁴⁸  folly,

but the shrewd ⁴⁹  are crowned ⁵⁰  with knowledge.

14:19 Those who are evil will bow ⁵¹  before those who are good,

and the wicked will bow ⁵²  at the gates ⁵³  of the righteous.

14:20 A poor person is disliked ⁵⁴  even by his neighbors,

but those who love the rich are many.

14:21 The one who despises his neighbor sins,

but whoever is kind to the needy is blessed.

14:22 Do not those who devise ⁵⁵  evil go astray?

But those who plan good exhibit ⁵⁶  faithful covenant love. ⁵⁷ 

14:23 In all hard work ⁵⁸  there is profit,

but merely talking about it ⁵⁹  only brings ⁶⁰  poverty. ⁶¹ 

[14:1]  ¹ tn Heb “wise ones of women.” The construct phrase חַכְמוֹת נָשִׁים (khakhmot nashim) features a wholistic genitive: “wise women.” The plural functions in a distributive sense: “every wise woman.” The contrast is between wise and foolish women (e.g., Prov 7:10-23; 31:10-31).

[14:1]  ² tn The perfect tense verb in the first colon functions in a gnomic sense, while the imperfect tense in the second colon is a habitual imperfect.

[14:1]  ³ tn Heb “house.” This term functions as a synecdoche of container (= house) for contents (= household, family).

[14:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “fear of the Lord.” The term יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the Lord”) functions as an objective genitive.

[14:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “crooked of ways”; NRSV “devious in conduct.” This construct phrase features a genitive of specification: “crooked in reference to his ways.” The term “ways” is an idiom for moral conduct. The evidence that people fear the Lord is uprightness; the evidence of those who despise him is the devious ways.

[14:3]  ⁶ tn The preposition בְּ (bet) may denote (1) exchange: “in exchange for” foolish talk there is a rod; or (2) cause: “because of” foolish talk.

[14:3]  ⁷ sn The noun פֶּה (peh, “mouth”) functions as a metonymy of cause for what is said (“speech, words, talk”).

[14:3]  ⁸ tc The MT reads גַּאֲוָה (ga’avah, “pride”) which creates an awkward sense “in the mouth of a fool is a rod of pride” (cf. KJV, ASV). The BHS editors suggest emending the form to גֵּוֹה (“disciplining-rod”) to create tighter parallelism and irony: “in the mouth of a fool is a rod for the back” (e.g., Prov 10:13). What the fools says will bring discipline.

[14:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “lips.” The term “lips” is a metonymy of cause, meaning what they say. The wise by their speech will find protection.

[14:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the strength of oxen.” The genitive שׁוֹר (shor, “oxen”) functions as an attributed genitive: “strong oxen.” Strong oxen are indispensable for a good harvest, and for oxen to be strong they must be well-fed. The farmer has to balance grain consumption with the work oxen do.

[14:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a witness of faithfulness.” The genitive functions in an attributive sense: “faithful witness” (so KJV, NRSV); TEV “reliable witness.”

[14:5]  ¹² tn Heb “a witness of falsehood.” The genitive functions in an attributive sense: “false witness.”

[14:5]  ¹³ sn This saying addresses the problem of legal testimony: A faithful witness does not lie, but a false witness does lie – naturally. The first colon uses the verb כָּזַב (kazav, “to lie”) and the second colon uses the noun כָּזָב (kazav, “lie; falsehood”).

[14:6]  ¹⁴ sn The “scorner” (לֵץ, lets) is intellectually arrogant; he lacks any serious interest in knowledge or religion. He pursues wisdom in a superficial way so that he can appear wise. The acquisition of wisdom is conditioned by one’s attitude toward it (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 149).

[14:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and there is not.”

[14:6]  ¹⁶ sn The Niphal of קָלַל (qalal) means “to appear light; to appear trifling; to appear easy.”

[14:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “a man, a stupid fellow.”

[14:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and.” The vav (ו) that introduces this clause may be understood as meaning “or….”

[14:7]  ¹⁹ tc The MT reads וּבַל־יָדַעְתָּ (uval-yada’ta, “you did not know [the lips of knowledge]).” It must mean that one should leave the fool because he did not receive knowledge from what fools said. Tg. Prov 14:7 freely interprets the verse: “for there is no knowledge on his lips.” The LXX reflects a Hebrew Vorlage of וּכְלֵי־דַעַת (ukhÿle-da’at, “[wise lips] are weapons of discretion”). The textual variant involves wrong word division and orthographic confusion between ב (bet) and כ (kaf). C. H. Toy emends the text: “for his lips do not utter knowledge” as in 15:7 (Proverbs [ICC], 285). The MT is workable and more difficult.

[14:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “lips of knowledge” (so KJV, ASV). “Lips” is the metonymy of cause, and “knowledge” is an objective genitive (speaking knowledge) or attributive genitive (knowledgeable speech): “wise counsel.”

[14:8]  ²¹ tn Or “the prudent [person]” (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV).

[14:8]  ²² tn The Hiphil infinitive construct denotes purpose. Those who are shrewd will use it to give careful consideration to all their ways.

[14:8]  ²³ tn The word means “deception,” but some suggest “self-deception” here (W. McKane, Proverbs [OTL], 466; and D. W. Thomas, “Textual and Philological Notes on Some Passages in the Book of Proverbs,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 286); cf. NLT “fools deceive themselves.” The parallelism would favor this, but there is little support for it. The word usually means “craft practiced on others.” If the line is saying the fool is deceitful, there is only a loose antithesis between the cola.

[14:9]  ²⁴ tn The noun “fools” is plural but the verb “mock” is singular. This has led some to reverse the line to say “guilty/guilt offering mocks fools” (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 287); see, e.g., Isa 1:14; Amos 5:22. But lack of agreement between subject and verb is not an insurmountable difficulty.

[14:9]  ²⁵ tc The LXX reads “houses of transgressors will owe purification.” Tg. Prov 14:9 has “guilt has its home among fools” (apparently reading לִין לוּן, lin lun).

[14:9]  ²⁶ tn The word רָצוֹן (ratson) means “favor; acceptance; pleasing.” It usually means what is pleasing or acceptable to God. In this passage it either means that the upright try to make amends, or that the upright find favor for doing so.

[14:10]  ²⁷ tn Heb “bitterness of its soul.”

[14:10]  ²⁸ tn Heb “stranger” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV).

[14:10]  ²⁹ tn The verb is the Hitpael of II עָרַב (’arav), which means “to take in pledge; to give in pledge; to exchange.” Here it means “to share [in].” The proverb is saying that there are joys and sorrows that cannot be shared. No one can truly understand the deepest feelings of another.

[14:11]  ³⁰ tn Heb “house.” The term “house” is a metonymy of subject, referring to their contents: families and family life.

[14:11]  ³¹ tn The term “tent” is a metonymy here referring to the contents of the tent: families.

[14:12]  ³² tn Heb “which is straight before a man.”

[14:12]  ³³ tn Heb “the ways of death” (so KJV, ASV). This construct phrase features a genitive of destiny: “ways that lead to [or, end in] death.” Here death means ruin (e.g., Prov 7:27; 16:25). The LXX adds “Hades,” but the verse seems to be concerned with events of this life.

[14:13]  ³⁴ 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]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and its end, joy, is grief.” The suffix may be regarded as an Aramaism, a proleptic suffix referring to “joy.”

[14:13]  ³⁶ tn The phrase “may be” is not in the Hebrew but is supplied from the parallelism, which features an imperfect of possibility.

[14:14]  ³⁷ tn Heb “a turning away of heart.” The genitive לֵב (lev, “heart”) functions as an attributive adjective: “a backslidden heart.” The term סוּג (sug) means “to move away; to move backwards; to depart; to backslide” (BDB 690 s.v. I סוּג). This individual is the one who backslides, that is, who departs from the path of righteousness.

[14:14]  ³⁸ tn Heb “will be filled”; cf. KJV, ASV. The verb (“to be filled, to be satisfied”) here means “to be repaid,” that is, to partake in his own evil ways. His faithlessness will come back to haunt him.

[14:14]  ³⁹ tn The phrase “will be rewarded” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[14:15]  ⁴⁰ sn The contrast is with the simpleton and the shrewd. The simpleton is the young person who is untrained morally or intellectually, and therefore gullible. The shrewd one is the prudent person, the one who has the ability to make critical discriminations.

[14:15]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “his step”; cf. TEV “sensible people watch their step.”

[14:16]  ⁴² tn Heb “fears.” Since the holy name (Yahweh, translated “the Lord”) is not used, it probably does not here mean fear of the Lord, but of the consequences of actions.

[14:16]  ⁴³ tn The Hitpael of עָבַר (’avar, “to pass over”) means “to pass over the bounds of propriety; to act insolently” (BDB 720 s.v.; cf. ASV “beareth himself insolently”).

[14:16]  ⁴⁴ tn The verb בָּטַח here denotes self-assurance or overconfidence. Fools are not cautious and do not fear the consequences of their actions.

[14:17]  ⁴⁵ sn The proverb discusses two character traits that are distasteful to others – the quick tempered person (“short of anger” or impatient) and the crafty person (“man of devices”). C. H. Toy thinks that the proverb is antithetical and renders it “but a wise man endures” (Proverbs [ICC], 292). In other words, the quick-tempered person acts foolishly and loses people’s respect, but the wise man does not.

[14:17]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “a man of devices.”

[14:17]  ⁴⁷ tc The LXX reads “endures” (from נָשָׂא, nasa’) rather than “is hated” (from שָׂנֵא, sane’). This change seems to have arisen on the assumption that a contrast was needed. It has: “a man of thought endures.” Other versions take מְזִמּוֹת (mÿzimmot) in a good sense; but antithetical parallelism is unwarranted here.

[14:18]  ⁴⁸ tc G. R. Driver, however, proposed reading the verb as “are adorned” from הלה (“Problems in the Hebrew Text of Proverbs,” Bib 32 [1951]: 181). A similar reading is followed by a number of English versions (e.g., NAB, NRSV, NLT).

[14:18]  ⁴⁹ tn Or “prudent” (KJV, NASB, NIV); NRSV, TEV “clever.”

[14:18]  ⁵⁰ tn The meaning of יַכְתִּרוּ (yakhtiru, Hiphil imperfect of כָּתַר, katar) is elusive. It may not mean “to be crowned” or “to crown themselves,” but “to encircle” or “to embrace.” BDB 509 s.v. כָּתַר Hiph suggests “to throw out crowns” (throw out knowledge as a crown) or “to encompass knowledge,” i.e., possess it (parallel to inherit).

[14:19]  ⁵¹ tn Many versions nuance the perfect tense verb שָׁחַח (shakhakh) as a characteristic perfect. But the proverb suggests that the reality lies in the future. So the verb is best classified as a prophetic perfect (cf. NASB, NIV, CEV, NLT): Ultimately the wicked will acknowledge and serve the righteous – a point the prophets make.

[14:19]  ⁵² tn The phrase “will bow” does not appear in this line but is implied by the parallelism; it is supplied in the translation for clarity and smoothness.

[14:19]  ⁵³ sn J. H. Greenstone suggests that this means that they are begging for favors (Proverbs, 154).

[14:20]  ⁵⁴ 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.

[14:22]  ⁵⁵ sn The verb חָרַשׁ (kharash) means (1) literally: “to cut in; to engrave; to plow,” describing the work of a craftsman; and (2) figuratively: “to devise,” describing the mental activity of planning evil (what will harm people) in the first colon, and planning good (what will benefit them) in the second colon.

[14:22]  ⁵⁶ tn The term “exhibit” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for clarity and smoothness.

[14:22]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “loyal-love and truth.” The two terms חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת (khesed ve’emet) often form a hendiadys: “faithful love” or better “faithful covenant love.”

[14:23]  ⁵⁸ sn The Hebrew term עֶצֶב (’etsev, “painful toil; labor”) is first used in scripture in Gen 3:19 to describe the effects of the Fall. The point here is that people should be more afraid of idle talk than of hard labor.

[14:23]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “word of lips.” This construct phrase features a genitive of source (“a word from the lips”) or a subjective genitive (“speaking a word”). Talk without work (which produces nothing) is contrasted with labor that produces something.

[14:23]  ⁶⁰ tn The term “brings” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for clarity and smoothness.

[14:23]  ⁶¹ sn The noun מַחְסוֹר (makhsor, “need; thing needed; poverty”) comes from the verb “to lack; to be lacking; to decrease; to need.” A person given to idle talk rather than industrious work will have needs that go unmet.