Proverbs 23:8

23:8 you will vomit up ¹  the little bit you have eaten,

and will have wasted your pleasant words. ² 

Proverbs 6:32

6:32 A man who commits adultery with a woman lacks wisdom, ³ 

whoever does it destroys his own life. ⁴ 

Proverbs 11:9

11:9 With his speech ⁵  the godless person ⁶  destroys ⁷  his neighbor,

but by knowledge ⁸  the righteous will be delivered.

Proverbs 18:9

18:9 The one who ⁹  is slack ¹⁰  in his work

is a brother ¹¹  to one who destroys. ¹² 

Proverbs 25:26

25:26 Like a muddied ¹³  spring and a polluted ¹⁴  well,

so is a righteous person who gives way ¹⁵  before the wicked.

Proverbs 28:24

28:24 The one who robs ¹⁶  his father and mother and says, “There is no transgression,”

is a companion ¹⁷  to the one ¹⁸  who destroys.

[23:8]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Or “your compliments” (so NASB, NIV); cf. TEV “your flattery.”

[6:32]  ³ tn Heb “heart.” The term “heart” is used as a metonymy of association for discernment, wisdom, good sense. Cf. NAB “is a fool”; NIV “lacks judgment”; NCV, NRSV “has no sense.”

[6:32]  ⁴ tn Heb “soul.” The noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul”) functions as a metonymy of association for “life” (BDB 659 s.v. 3.c).

[11:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “with his mouth.” The term פֶּה (peh, “mouth”) functions as a metonymy of cause for speech.

[11:9]  ⁶ sn The Hebrew word originally meant “impious, godless, polluted, profane.” It later developed the idea of a “hypocrite” (Dan 11:32), one who conceals his evil under the appearance of godliness or kindness. This one is a false flatterer.

[11:9]  ⁷ sn The verb שָׁחַת (shakhat) means “to destroy; to ruin” (e.g., the destruction of Sodom in Gen 13:10). The imperfect tense is probably not an habitual imperfect (because the second colon shows exceptions), but probably a progressive imperfect (“this goes on”) or potential imperfect (“they can do this”).

[11:9]  ⁸ sn The antithetical proverb states that a righteous person can escape devastating slander through knowledge. The righteous will have sufficient knowledge and perception to see through the hypocrisy and avoid its effect.

[18:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “Also, the one who.” Many commentators and a number of English versions omit the word “also.”

[18:9]  ⁸ tn The form מִתְרַפֶּה (mitrappeh) is the Hitpael participle, “showing oneself slack.” The verb means “to sink; to relax,” and in the causative stem “to let drop” the hands. This is the lazy person who does not even try to work.

[18:9]  ⁹ sn These two troubling types, the slacker and the destroyer, are closely related.

[18:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “possessor of destruction.” This idiom means “destroyer” (so ASV); KJV “a great waster”; NRSV “a vandal.”

[25:26]  ⁹ tn The Niphal participle is from רָפַס (rafas), which means “to stamp; to tread; to foul by treading [or, by stamping].” BDB 952 s.v. defines it here as a “fountain befouled.” The picture is one of a spring of water where men and beasts gather and muddy it by their trampling in and out of it.

[25:26]  ¹⁰ tn The Hophal participle from שָׁחַת (shakhat, “to ruin; to destroy; to corrupt”) provides a general description – the well has been “ruined” or “corrupted” (so ASV) and is therefore unusable.

[25:26]  ¹¹ tn The verb מָט (mat) means “to give way; to move.” This probably refers to the integrity of the righteous being lost – comparing it to moving [off course]. T. T. Perowne writes, “To see a righteous man moved from his steadfastness through fear or favour in the presence of the wicked is as disheartening as to find the stream turbid and defiled at which you were longing to quench your thirst” (Proverbs, 161). But the line may refer to the loss of social standing and position by the righteous due to the plots of the wicked – just as someone muddied the water, someone made the righteous slip from his place.

[28:24]  ¹¹ sn While the expression is general enough to cover any kind of robbery, the point seems to be that because it can be rationalized it may refer to prematurely trying to gain control of the family property through some form of pressure and in the process reducing the parents’ possessions and standing in the community. The culprit could claim what he does is not wrong because the estate would be his anyway.

[28:24]  ¹² sn The metaphor of “companion” here means that a person who would do this is just like the criminally destructive person. It is as if they were working together, for the results are the same.

[28:24]  ¹³ tn Heb “man who destroys” (so NASB); TEV “no better than a common thief.”