Proverbs 3:28

3:28 Do not say to your neighbor, “Go! Return tomorrow

and I will give it,” when ¹  you have it with you at the time. ² 

Proverbs 19:18

19:18 Discipline your child, for ³  there is hope,

but do not set your heart ⁴  on causing his death. ⁵ 

Proverbs 24:14

24:14 Likewise, know ⁶  that wisdom is sweet ⁷  to your soul;

if you find it, ⁸  you will have a future, ⁹ 

and your hope will not be cut off.

[3:28]  ¹ tn Heb “and it is with you.” The prefixed vav introduces a circumstantial clause: “when …”

[3:28]  ² tn The words “at the time” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[19:18]  ³ tn The translation understands כִּי (ki) as causal. Some prefer to take כִּי as temporal and translate, “while there is hope” (so KJV, NASB, NCV, NRSV, NLT), meaning that discipline should be administered when the child is young and easily guided. In the causal reading of כִּי, the idea seems to be that children should be disciplined because change is possible due to their youth and the fact that they are not set in their ways.

[19:18]  ⁴ tn The expression “do not lift up your soul/life” to his death may mean (1) “do not set your heart” on his death (cf. ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV), or it may mean (2) “do not be a willing partner” (cf. NIV). The parent is to discipline a child, but he is not to take it to the extreme and destroy or kill the child.

[19:18]  ⁵ tn The Hiphil infinitive construct הֲמִיתוֹ (h^amito) means “taking it to heart” in this line. The traditional rendering was “and let not your soul spare for his crying.” This involved a different reading than “causing his death” (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 206-7).

[24:14]  ⁵ tn D. W. Thomas argues for a meaning of “seek” in place of “know” (“Notes on Some Passages in the Book of Proverbs,” JTS 38 [1937]: 400-403).

[24:14]  ⁶ tn The phrase “is sweet” is supplied in the translation as a clarification.

[24:14]  ⁷ tn The term “it” is supplied in the translation.

[24:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “there will be an end.” The word is אַחֲרִית (’akhrit, “after-part, end”). BDB 31 s.v. b says in a passage like this it means “a future,” i.e., a happy close of life, sometimes suggesting the idea of posterity promised to the righteous, often parallel to “hope.”