Proverbs 2:10

2:10 For wisdom will enter your heart, ¹ 

and moral knowledge ²  will be attractive ³  to you. ⁴ 

Proverbs 5:18

5:18 May your fountain be blessed, ⁵ 

and may you rejoice ⁶  in your young wife ⁷  –

Proverbs 23:18

23:18 For surely there is a future, ⁸ 

and your hope will not be cut off. ⁹ 

Proverbs 23:33

23:33 Your eyes will see strange things, ¹⁰ 

and your mind will speak perverse things.

Proverbs 24:12

24:12 If you say, “But we did not know about this,”

does not the one who evaluates ¹¹  hearts consider?

Does not the one who guards your life know?

Will he not repay each person according to his deeds? ¹² 

[2:10]  ¹ tn The noun לֵב (lev, “heart”) functions as a metonymy of association for “mind” and “thoughts” (BDB 524 s.v. 3). It represents the center of the inner life where the volition and emotions join to bring about actions. It is used here in parallelism with נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul”), for which see note.

[2:10]  ² tn Heb “knowledge.” For the noun דַּעַת (da’at), see the note on 1:7.

[2:10]  ³ tn Heb “pleasant.” The verb יִנְעָם (yin’am, “to be pleasant”) describes what is attractive. It is used of being physically attracted to one’s lover (Song 7:7) or to a close friendship (2 Sam 1:26). Here wisdom becomes attractive to the righteous, that is, the righteous desires to acquire it.

[2:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “your soul.” The term נַפְשְׁךָ (nafshÿkha, “your soul”) functions as a synecdoche of part (= soul) for the whole person (= you); see BDB 660 s.v. 4.a.2. It also might function as a metonymy of association for emotions and passions (BDB 660 s.v. 6) or mental cognition (BDB 660 s.v. 7).

[5:18]  ⁵ sn The positive instruction is now given: Find pleasure in a fulfilling marriage. The “fountain” is another in the series of implied comparisons with the sexual pleasure that must be fulfilled at home. That it should be blessed (the passive participle of בָּרַךְ, barakh) indicates that sexual delight is God-given; having it blessed would mean that it would be endowed with fruitfulness, that it would fulfill all that God intended it to do.

[5:18]  ⁶ tn The form is a Qal imperative with a vav (ו) of sequence; after the jussive of the first half this colon could be given an equivalent translation or logically subordinated.

[5:18]  ⁷ tn Or “in the wife you married when you were young” (cf. NCV, CEV); Heb “in the wife of your youth” (so NIV, NLT). The genitive functions as an attributive adjective: “young wife” or “youthful wife.” Another possibility is that it refers to the age in which a man married his wife: “the wife you married in your youth.”

[23:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “end” (so KJV); ASV “a reward.”

[23:18]  ¹⁰ sn The saying is an understatement; far from being cut off, the “hope” will be realized in the end. So this saying, the thirteenth, advises people to be zealous for the fear of the Lord, their religion, rather than for anything that sinners have to offer.

[23:33]  ¹³ tn The feminine plural of זָר (zar, “strange things”) refers to the trouble one has in seeing and speaking when drunk.

[24:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “weighs” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV) meaning “tests” or “evaluates.”

[24:12]  ¹⁸ sn The verse completes the saying by affirming that people will be judged responsible for helping those in mortal danger. The verse uses a series of rhetorical questions to affirm that God knows our hearts and we cannot plead ignorance.