Proverbs 15:20

15:20 A wise child ¹  brings joy to his father,

but a foolish person ²  despises ³  his mother.

Proverbs 17:21

17:21 Whoever brings a fool ⁴  into the world ⁵  does so ⁶  to his grief,

and the father of a fool has no joy. ⁷ 

Proverbs 17:25

17:25 A foolish child is a grief ⁸  to his father,

and bitterness to the mother who bore him. ⁹ 

Proverbs 19:13

19:13 A foolish child ¹⁰  is the ruin of his father,

and a contentious wife ¹¹  is like ¹²  a constant dripping. ¹³ 

Proverbs 23:15-16

23:15 My child, ¹⁴  if your heart is wise,

then my heart also will be glad;

23:16 my soul ¹⁵  will rejoice

when your lips speak what is right. ¹⁶ 

Proverbs 23:24-25

23:24 The father of a righteous person will rejoice greatly; ¹⁷ 

whoever fathers a wise child ¹⁸  will have joy in him.

23:25 May your father and your mother have joy;

may she who bore you rejoice. ¹⁹ 

Proverbs 29:3

29:3 The man ²⁰  who loves wisdom brings joy to his father, ²¹ 

but whoever associates ²²  with prostitutes wastes ²³  his wealth. ²⁴ 

Proverbs 29:15

29:15 A rod and reproof ²⁵  impart ²⁶  wisdom,

but a child who is unrestrained ²⁷  brings shame ²⁸  to his mother. ²⁹ 

Ecclesiastes 2:19

2:19 Who knows if he will be a wise man or a fool?

Yet ³⁰  he will be master over all the fruit of ³¹  my labor ³² 

for which I worked so wisely ³³  on earth! ³⁴ 

This also is futile!

[15:20]  ¹ tn Heb “son.”

[15:20]  ² tn Heb “a fool of a man,” a genitive of specification.

[15:20]  ³ sn The proverb is almost the same as 10:1, except that “despises” replaces “grief.” This adds the idea of the callousness of the one who inflicts grief on his mother (D. Kidner, Proverbs [TOTC], 116).

[17:21]  ⁴ sn Here the Hebrew terms כְּסִיל (kÿsil) and נָבָל (naval) are paired. The first one, which occurs about fifty times in the book, refers to a dullard, whether it be in spiritual, intellectual, or moral matters. The second word, rare in the book, primarily focuses on religious folly – it refers to the practical atheist, the one who lives as if there is no God.

[17:21]  ⁵ tn The form simply means “bears” or “gives birth to,” but since it is masculine it could be rendered “fathers” (cf. NASB “he who begets a fool”; NIV “To have a fool for a son”). The form for “fool” is masculine, but the proverb is not limited only to male children (cf. NCV “It is sad to have a foolish child”).

[17:21]  ⁶ tn The phrase “does so” is supplied for the sake of clarification.

[17:21]  ⁷ sn Parents of fools, who had hoped for children who would be a credit to the family, find only bitter disappointment (cf. TEV “nothing but sadness and sorrow”).

[17:25]  ⁸ sn The Hebrew noun means “vexation, anger, grief.”

[17:25]  ⁹ tn Heb “to the one who bore him.” Because the participle is feminine singular in Hebrew, this has been translated as “the mother who bore him.”

[19:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “a foolish son” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, CEV); NRSV “a stupid child.”

[19:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the contentions of a wife” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “the nagging of a wife.” The genitive could be interpreted (1) as genitive of source or subjective genitive – she is quarreling; or (2) it could be a genitive of specification, making the word “contentions” a modifier, as in the present translation.

[19:13]  ¹² tn Heb “is a constant dripping.” The term “like” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity. The metaphor pictures water dropping (perhaps rain through the roof, cf. NRSV, CEV) in a continuous flow: It is annoying and irritating (e.g., Prov 27:15-16).

[19:13]  ¹³ tc The LXX makes this moralistic statement for 13b: “vows paid out of hire of a harlot are not pure.” It is not based on the MT and attempts to reconstruct a text using this have been unsuccessful.

[23:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “my son,” although the context does not limit this exhortation to male children.

[23:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “my kidneys”; in biblical Hebrew the term was used for the innermost being, the soul, the central location of the passions. Cf. NASB, NIV “my inmost being.”

[23:16]  ¹⁶ sn This twelfth saying simply observes that children bring joy to their parents when they demonstrate wisdom. The quatrain is arranged in a chiastic structure (AB:B'A'): The first line (A) speaks of wisdom in the child, and it is paired with the last line (A') which speaks of the child’s saying what is right. In between these brackets are two lines (B and B') concerning joy to the parent.

[23:24]  ¹⁷ tc The Qere reading has the imperfect יָגִיל (yagil) with the cognate accusative גִּיל (gil) which intensifies the meaning and the specific future of this verb.

[23:24]  ¹⁸ tn The term “child” is supplied for the masculine singular adjective here.

[23:25]  ¹⁹ tn The form תָגֵל (tagel) is clearly a short form and therefore a jussive (“may she…rejoice”); if this second verb is a jussive, then the parallel יִשְׂמַח (yismakh) should be a jussive also (“may your father and your mother have joy”).

[29:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “a man.” Here “man” is retained in the translation because the second colon mentions prostitutes.

[29:3]  ²¹ tn Or “causes his father to rejoice”; NAB “makes his father glad.”

[29:3]  ²² tn The active participle רֹעֶה (ro’eh) is from the second root רָעָה (ra’ah), meaning “to associate with.” The verb occurs only a few times, and mostly in the book of Proverbs. It is related to רֵעֶה (re’eh, “friend; companion; fellow”). To describe someone as a “companion” or “friend” of prostitutes is somewhat euphemistic; it surely means someone who is frequently engaging the services of prostitutes.

[29:3]  ²³ tn The Hebrew verb יְאַבֶּד (yÿ’abbed) means “destroys”; it is the Piel imperfect of the verb that means “to perish.”

[29:3]  ²⁴ sn Wealth was seen as a sign of success and of God’s blessings, pretty much as it always has been. To be seen as honorable in the community meant one had acquired some substance and kept his reputation. It would be a disgrace to the family to have a son who squandered his money on prostitutes (e.g., Prov 5:10; 6:31).

[29:15]  ²⁵ tn The word “rod” is a metonymy of cause, in which the instrument being used to discipline is mentioned in place of the process of disciplining someone. So the expression refers to the process of discipline that is designed to correct someone. Some understand the words “rod and reproof” to form a hendiadys, meaning “a correcting [or, reproving] rod” (cf. NAB, NIV “the rod of correction”).

[29:15]  ²⁶ tn Heb “gives” (so NAB).

[29:15]  ²⁷ tn The form is a Pual participle; the form means “to let loose” (from the meaning “to send”; cf. KJV, NIV “left to himself”), and so in this context “unrestrained.”

[29:15]  ²⁸ sn The Hebrew participle translated “brings shame” is a metonymy of effect; the cause is the unruly and foolish things that an unrestrained child will do.

[29:15]  ²⁹ sn The focus on the mother is probably a rhetorical variation for the “parent” (e.g., 17:21; 23:24-25) and is not meant to assume that only the mother will do the training and endure the shame for a case like this (e.g., 13:24; 23:13).

[2:19]  ³⁰ tn The vav on וְיִשְׁלַט (vÿyishlat, conjunction + Qal imperfect 3rd person masculine singular from שָׁלַט, shalat, “to be master”) is adversative (“yet”).

[2:19]  ³¹ tn The phrase “the fruit of” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity (see the following note on the word “labor”).

[2:19]  ³² tn Heb “my labor.” As in 2:18, the term עֲמָלִי (’amali, “my labor”) is a metonymy of cause (i.e., my labor) for effect (i.e., fruit of my labor). The metonymy is recognized by several translations: “he will control all the wealth that I gained” (NJPS); “he will have control over all the fruits of my labor” (NAB); “he will have mastery over all the fruits of my labor” (NEB); “he will have control over all the fruit of my labor” (NASB); “he will be master over all my possessions” (MLB).

[2:19]  ³³ tn An internal cognate accusative construction (accusative and verb from same root) is used for emphasis: שֶׁעָמַלְתִּי עֲמָלִי (’amali she’amalti, “my toil for which I had toiled”); see IBHS 167 §10.2.1g. The two verbs שֶׁעָמַלְתִּי וְשֶׁחָכַמְתִּי (she’amalti vÿshekhakhamti, “for which I had labored and for which I had acted wisely”) form a verbal hendiadys (two separate verbs used in association to communicate one idea): “for I had labored so wisely.” The second verb is used adverbially to modify the first verb, which functions in its full verbal sense.

[2:19]  ³⁴ tn Heb “under the sun.”