Proverbs 19:12-13

19:12 A king’s wrath is like ¹  the roar of a lion, ² 

but his favor is like dew on the grass. ³ 

19:13 A foolish child ⁴  is the ruin of his father,

and a contentious wife ⁵  is like ⁶  a constant dripping. ⁷ 

Proverbs 20:8

20:8 A king sitting on the throne to judge ⁸ 

separates out ⁹  all evil with his eyes. ¹⁰ 

Proverbs 20:26

20:26 A wise king separates out ¹¹  the wicked;

he turns the threshing wheel over them. ¹² 

Proverbs 22:11

22:11 The one who loves a pure heart ¹³ 

and whose speech is gracious ¹⁴  – the king will be his friend. ¹⁵ 

Proverbs 25:5

25:5 remove the wicked from before the king, ¹⁶ 

and his throne ¹⁷  will be established in righteousness. ¹⁸ 

Proverbs 29:12

29:12 If a ruler listens to ¹⁹  lies, ²⁰ 

all his ministers ²¹  will be wicked. ²² 

Psalms 101:4-8

101:4 I will have nothing to do with a perverse person; ²³ 

I will not permit ²⁴  evil.

101:5 I will destroy anyone who slanders his neighbor in secret.

I will not tolerate anyone who has a cocky demeanor and an arrogant attitude. ²⁵ 

101:6 I will favor the honest people of the land, ²⁶ 

and allow them to live with me. ²⁷ 

Those who walk in the way of integrity will attend me. ²⁸ 

101:7 Deceitful people will not live in my palace. ²⁹ 

Liars will not be welcome in my presence. ³⁰ 

101:8 Each morning I will destroy all the wicked people in the land,

and remove all evildoers from the city of the Lord.

Matthew 24:45-51

The Faithful and Wise Slave

24:45 “Who then is the faithful and wise slave, ³¹  whom the master has put in charge of his household, to give the other slaves ³²  their food at the proper time? 24:46 Blessed is that slave whom the master finds at work ³³  when he comes. 24:47 I tell you the truth, ³⁴  the master ³⁵  will put him in charge of all his possessions. 24:48 But if ³⁶  that evil slave should say to himself, ³⁷  ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ 24:49 and he begins to beat his fellow slaves and to eat and drink with drunkards, 24:50 then the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not foresee, 24:51 and will cut him in two, ³⁸  and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Luke 12:42-48

12:42 The Lord replied, ³⁹  “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, ⁴⁰  whom the master puts in charge of his household servants, ⁴¹  to give them their allowance of food at the proper time? 12:43 Blessed is that slave ⁴²  whom his master finds at work ⁴³  when he returns. 12:44 I tell you the truth, ⁴⁴  the master ⁴⁵  will put him in charge of all his possessions. 12:45 But if ⁴⁶  that ⁴⁷  slave should say to himself, ⁴⁸  ‘My master is delayed ⁴⁹  in returning,’ and he begins to beat ⁵⁰  the other ⁵¹  slaves, both men and women, ⁵²  and to eat, drink, and get drunk, 12:46 then the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not foresee, and will cut him in two, ⁵³  and assign him a place with the unfaithful. ⁵⁴  12:47 That ⁵⁵  servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or do what his master asked ⁵⁶  will receive a severe beating. 12:48 But the one who did not know his master’s will ⁵⁷  and did things worthy of punishment ⁵⁸  will receive a light beating. ⁵⁹  From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, ⁶⁰  and from the one who has been entrusted with much, ⁶¹  even more will be asked. ⁶² 

[19:12]  ¹ sn The verse contrasts the “rage” of the king with his “favor” by using two similes. The first simile presents the king at his most dangerous – his anger (e.g., 20:2; Amos 3:4). The second simile presents his favor as beneficial for life (e.g., 16:14-15; 28:15).

[19:12]  ² tn Heb “is a roaring like a lion.”

[19:12]  ³ sn The proverb makes an observation about a king’s power to terrify or to refresh. It advises people to use tact with a king.

[19:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “a foolish son” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, CEV); NRSV “a stupid child.”

[19:13]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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.

[20:8]  ⁸ tn The infinitive construct is דִּין; it indicates purpose, “to judge” (so NIV, NCV) even though it does not have the preposition with it.

[20:8]  ⁹ tn The second line uses the image of winnowing (cf. NIV, NRSV) to state that the king’s judgment removes evil from the realm. The verb form is מִזָרֶה (mÿzareh), the Piel participle. It has been translated “to sift; to winnow; to scatter” and “to separate” – i.e., separate out evil from the land. The text is saying that a just government roots out evil (cf. NAB “dispels all evil”), but few governments have been consistently just.

[20:8]  ¹⁰ sn The phrase with his eyes indicates that the king will closely examine or look into all the cases that come before him.

[20:26]  ¹¹ tn Heb “winnows” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV). The sage draws on the process of winnowing to explain how the king uncovers and removes wickedness. The verb from which the participle מְזָרֶה (mÿzareh) is derived means “to separate; to winnow; to scatter”; the implied comparison means that the king will separate good people from bad people like wheat is separated from chaff. The image of winnowing is also used in divine judgment. The second line of the verse uses a detail of the process to make the point. Driving a wheel over the wheat represents the threshing process; the sharp iron wheels of the cart would easily serve the purpose (e.g., Isa 28:27-28).

[20:26]  ¹² tn The king has the wisdom/ability to destroy evil from his kingdom. See also D. W. Thomas, “Proverbs 20:26,” JTS 15 (1964): 155-56.

[22:11]  ¹³ sn The “heart” is a metonymy of subject; it represents the intentions and choices that are made. “Pure of heart” uses “heart” as a genitive of specification. The expression refers to someone who has honest and clear intentions.

[22:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “grace of his lips” (so KJV, ASV). The “lips” are a metonymy of cause representing what is said; it also functions as a genitive of specification.

[22:11]  ¹⁵ tn The syntax of the line is somewhat difficult, because “grace of his lips” seems to be intruding on the point of the verse with little explanation. Therefore the LXX rendered it “The Lord loves the pure in heart; all who are blameless in their ways are acceptable to him.” This has very little correspondence with the Hebrew; nevertheless commentators attempt to reconstruct the verse using it, and the NAB follows the first clause of the LXX here. Some have suggested taking “king” as the subject of the whole verse (“the king loves…”), but this is forced.

[25:5]  ¹⁶ sn These two verses present first an illustration and then the point (so it is emblematic parallelism). The passage uses imperatives to teach that the wicked must be purged from the kingdom.

[25:5]  ¹⁷ sn “Throne” is a metonymy of subject (or adjunct); it is the symbol of the government over which the king presides (cf. NCV, TEV).

[25:5]  ¹⁸ sn When the king purges the wicked from his court he will be left with righteous counselors and his government therefore will be “established in righteousness” – it will endure through righteousness (cf. NLT “made secure by justice”). But as J. H. Greenstone says, “The king may have perfect ideals and his conduct may be irreproachable, but he may be misled by unscrupulous courtiers” (Proverbs, 264).

[29:12]  ¹⁹ tn The Hiphil participle מַקְשִׁיב (maqshiv) means “to give attention to; to regard; to heed.” Cf. NASB, NCV, TEV “pays attention to.”

[29:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “word of falsehood” or “lying word.” Cf. TEV “false information.”

[29:12]  ²¹ tn The verb שָׁרַת (sharat) means “to minister; to serve.” The Piel plural participle here refers to servants of the king who attend to him – courtiers and ministers (cf. NIV, NRSV, TEV, CEV “officials”; NLT “advisers”). This, his entourage, will have to resort to evil practices to gain his favor if he is swayed by such lies.

[29:12]  ²² sn The servants of the monarch adjust to their ruler; when they see that court flattery and deception are effective, they will begin to practice it and in the end become wicked (e.g., Prov 16:10; 20:8; 25:2).

[101:4]  ²³ tn Heb “a perverse heart will turn aside from me.” The adjective עִקֵּשׁ (’iqqesh) has the basic nuance “twisted; crooked” and by extension refers to someone or something that is morally perverse (see Ps 18:26). It appears frequently in the Book of Proverbs, where it is used of evil people (22:5), speech (8:8; 19:1), thoughts (11:20; 17:20), and life styles (2:15; 28:6).

[101:4]  ²⁴ tn Heb “know.” The king will not willingly allow perverse individuals to remain in his royal court.

[101:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “[one who has] pride of eyes and wideness [i.e., arrogance] of heart, him I will not endure.”

[101:6]  ²⁶ tn Heb “my eyes [are] on the faithful of the land.”

[101:6]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew text simply reads, “in order to live with me.”

[101:6]  ²⁸ tn Heb “one who walks in the way of integrity, he will minister to me.”

[101:7]  ²⁹ tn Heb “he will not live in the midst of my house, one who does deceit.”

[101:7]  ³⁰ tn Heb “one who speaks lies will not be established before my eyes.”

[24:45]  ³¹ tn See the note on the word “slave” in 8:9.

[24:45]  ³² tn Grk “give them.”

[24:46]  ³³ tn That is, doing his job, doing what he is supposed to be doing.

[24:47]  ³⁴ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[24:47]  ³⁵ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the master) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:48]  ³⁶ tn In the Greek text this is a third class condition that for all practical purposes is a hypothetical condition (note the translation of the following verb “should say”).

[24:48]  ³⁷ tn Grk “should say in his heart.”

[24:51]  ³⁸ tn The verb διχοτομέω (dicotomew) means to cut an object into two parts (L&N 19.19). This is an extremely severe punishment compared to the other two later punishments. To translate it simply as “punish” is too mild. If taken literally this servant is dismembered, although it is possible to view the stated punishment as hyperbole (L&N 38.12).

[12:42]  ³⁹ tn Grk “And the Lord said.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[12:42]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “administrator,” “steward” (L&N 37.39).

[12:42]  ⁴¹ tn This term, θεραπεία (qerapeia), describes the group of servants working in a particular household (L&N 46.6).

[12:43]  ⁴² tn See the note on the word “slave” in 7:2.

[12:43]  ⁴³ tn That is, doing his job, doing what he is supposed to be doing.

[12:44]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “Truly (ἀληθῶς, alhqw"), I say to you.”

[12:44]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the master) has been specified in the translation for clarity. See also Luke 19:11-27.

[12:45]  ⁴⁶ tn In the Greek text this is a third class condition that for all practical purposes is a hypothetical condition (note the translation of the following verb “should say”).

[12:45]  ⁴⁷ tn The term “that” (ἐκεῖνος, ekeino") is used as a catchword to list out, in the form of a number of hypothetical circumstances, what the possible responses of “that” servant could be. He could be faithful (vv. 43-44) or totally unfaithful (vv. 45-46). He does not complete his master’s will with knowledge (v. 47) or from ignorance (v 48). These differences are indicated by the different levels of punishment in vv. 46-48.

[12:45]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “should say in his heart.”

[12:45]  ⁴⁹ tn Or “is taking a long time.”

[12:45]  ⁵⁰ sn The slave’s action in beginning to beat the other slaves was not only a failure to carry out what was commanded but involved doing the exact reverse.

[12:45]  ⁵¹ tn The word “other” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[12:45]  ⁵² tn Grk “the menservants and the maidservants.” The term here, used in both masculine and feminine grammatical forms, is παῖς (pais), which can refer to a slave, but also to a slave who is a personal servant, and thus regarded kindly (L&N 87.77).

[12:46]  ⁵³ tn The verb διχοτομέω (dicotomew) means to cut an object into two parts (L&N 19.19). This is an extremely severe punishment compared to the other two later punishments. To translate it simply as “punish” is too mild. If taken literally this servant is dismembered, although it is possible to view the stated punishment as hyperbole (L&N 38.12).

[12:46]  ⁵⁴ tn Or “unbelieving.” Here the translation employs the slightly more ambiguous “unfaithful,” which creates a link with the point of the parable – faithfulness versus unfaithfulness in servants. The example of this verse must be taken together with the examples of vv. 47-48 as part of a scale of reactions with the most disobedient response coming here. The fact that this servant is placed in a distinct group, unlike the one in vv. 47-48, also suggests ultimate exclusion. This is the hypocrite of Matt 24:51.

[12:47]  ⁵⁵ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[12:47]  ⁵⁶ tn Grk “or do according to his will”; the referent (the master) has been specified in the translation for clarity. This example deals with the slave who knew what the command was and yet failed to complete it.

[12:48]  ⁵⁷ tn Grk “did not know”; the phrase “his master’s will” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the contemporary English reader.

[12:48]  ⁵⁸ tn Grk “blows.”

[12:48]  ⁵⁹ tn Grk “will receive few (blows).”

[12:48]  ⁶⁰ tn Grk “required from him”; but the words “from him” are redundant in English and have not been translated.

[12:48]  ⁶¹ sn Entrusted with much. To be gifted with precious responsibility is something that requires faithfulness.

[12:48]  ⁶² tn Grk “they will ask even more.”