Proverbs 15:17

15:17 Better a meal of vegetables where there is love ¹ 

than a fattened ox where there is hatred. ² 

Proverbs 23:8

23:8 you will vomit up ³  the little bit you have eaten,

and will have wasted your pleasant words. ⁴ 

[15:17]  ¹ tn Heb “and love there.” This clause is a circumstantial clause introduced with vav, that becomes “where there is love.” The same construction is used in the second colon.

[15:17]  ² sn Again the saying concerns troublesome wealth: Loving relationships with simple food are better than a feast where there is hatred. The ideal, of course, would be loving family and friends with a great meal in addition, but this proverb is only comparing two things.

[23:8]  ³ sn Eating and drinking with a selfish miser would be irritating and disgusting. The line is hyperbolic; the whole experience turns the stomach.

[23:8]  ⁴ tn Or “your compliments” (so NASB, NIV); cf. TEV “your flattery.”