Discovery BoxProverbs 14:5
Context14:5 A truthful witness 1 does not lie,
but a false witness 2 breathes out lies. 3
Proverbs 14:25
Context14:25 A truthful witness 4 rescues lives, 5
but the one who breathes lies brings 6 deception. 7
Proverbs 14:1
Context14:1 Every wise woman 8 builds 9 her household, 10
but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands.
Proverbs 22:14-15
Context22:14 The mouth 11 of an adulteress is like 12 a deep pit; 13
the one against whom the Lord is angry 14 will fall into it. 15
22:15 Folly is bound up 16 in the heart of a child, 17
but the rod of discipline 18 will drive it far from him.
[14:5] 1 tn Heb “a witness of faithfulness.” The genitive functions in an attributive sense: “faithful witness” (so KJV, NRSV); TEV “reliable witness.”
[14:5] 2 tn Heb “a witness of falsehood.” The genitive functions in an attributive sense: “false witness.”
[14:5] 3 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”).
[14:25] 4 tn Heb “a witness of truth”; cf. CEV “an honest witness.”
[14:25] 5 tn The noun נְפָשׁוֹת (nÿfashot) often means “souls,” but here “lives” – it functions as a metonymy for life (BDB 659 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 3.c).
[14:25] 6 tn The term “brings” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity. Also possible, “is deceitful.”
[14:25] 7 tc Several commentators suggest emending the text from the noun מִרְמָה (mirmah, “deception”) to the participle מְרַמֶּה (mÿrameh, “destroys”). However, this revocalization is not necessary because the MT makes sense as it stands: A false witness destroys lives.
[14:1] 8 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] 9 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] 10 tn Heb “house.” This term functions as a synecdoche of container (= house) for contents (= household, family).
[22:14] 11 sn The word “mouth” is a metonymy of cause; it refers to the seductive speech of the strange woman (e.g., 2:16-22; and chs. 5, 7).
[22:14] 12 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.
[22:14] 13 sn The point of the metaphor is that what the adulteress says is like a deep pit. The pit is like the hunter’s snare; it is a trap that is difficult to escape. So to succumb to the adulteress – or to any other folly this represents – is to get oneself into a difficulty that has no easy escape.
[22:14] 14 tn Heb “the one who is cursed by the
[22:14] 15 tn Heb “will fall there.” The “falling” could refer to the curse itself or to the result of the curse.
[22:15] 16 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] 17 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] 18 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”).
