Proverbs 3:35

3:35 The wise inherit honor,

but he holds fools up ¹  to public contempt. ² 

Proverbs 11:29

11:29 The one who troubles ³  his family ⁴  will inherit nothing, ⁵ 

and the fool ⁶  will be a servant to the wise person. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 16:19

16:19 Then I said, ⁸ 

“Lord, you give me strength and protect me.

You are the one I can run to for safety when I am in trouble. ⁹ 

Nations from all over the earth

will come to you and say,

‘Our ancestors had nothing but false gods –

worthless idols that could not help them at all. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 44:17

44:17 Instead we will do everything we vowed we would do. ¹¹  We will sacrifice and pour out drink offerings to the goddess called the Queen of Heaven ¹²  just as we and our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders previously did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and had no troubles. ¹³ 

Matthew 23:29-32

23:29 “Woe to you, experts in the law ¹⁴  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You ¹⁵  build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves ¹⁶  of the righteous. 23:30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, ¹⁷  we would not have participated with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 23:31 By saying this you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 23:32 Fill up then the measure of your ancestors!

Matthew 23:1

Seven Woes

23:1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples,

Matthew 1:18

The Birth of Jesus Christ

1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, ¹⁸  she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

[3:35]  ¹ tc MT reads מֵרִים (merim, “he lifts up”): singular Hiphil participle of רוּם (rum, “to rise; to exalt”), functioning verbally with the Lord as the implied subject: “but he lifts up fools to shame.” The LXX and Vulgate reflect the plural מְרִימִים (mÿrimim, “they exalt”) with “fools” (כְּסִילִים, kesilim) as the explicit subject: “but fools exalt shame.” The textual variant was caused by haplography or dittography of ים (depending on whether MT or the alternate tradition is original).

[3:35]  ² tn The noun קָלוֹן (qalon, “ignominy; dishonor; contempt”) is from קָלָה (qalah) which is an alternate form of קָלַל (qalal) which means (1) “to treat something lightly,” (2) “to treat with contempt [or, with little esteem]” or (3) “to curse.” The noun refers to personal disgrace or shame. While the wise will inherit honor, fools will be made a public display of dishonor. God lets fools entangle themselves in their folly in a way for all to see.

[11:29]  ³ tn The verb עָכַר (’akhar, “to trouble”) refers to actions which make life difficult for one’s family (BDB 747 s.v.). He will be cut out of the family inheritance.

[11:29]  ⁴ tn Heb “his house.” The term בֵּית (bet, “house”) is a synecdoche of container (= house) for its contents (= family, household).

[11:29]  ⁵ tn Heb “the wind” (so KJV, NCV, NLT); NAB “empty air.” The word “wind” (רוּחַ, ruakh) refers to what cannot be grasped (Prov 27:16; Eccl 1:14, 17). The figure is a hypocatastasis, comparing wind to what he inherits – nothing he can put his hands on. Cf. CEV “won’t inherit a thing.”

[11:29]  ⁶ sn The “fool” here is the “troubler” of the first half. One who mismanages his affairs so badly so that there is nothing for the family may have to sell himself into slavery to the wise. The ideas of the two halves of the verse are complementary.

[11:29]  ⁷ tn Heb “to the wise of heart.” The noun לֵב (lev, “heart”) is an attributed genitive: “wise heart.” The term לֵב (“heart”) also functions as a synecdoche of part (= heart) for the whole (= person); see BDB 525 s.v. 7.

[16:19]  ⁸ tn The words “Then I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to show the shift from God, who has been speaking to Jeremiah, to Jeremiah, who here addresses God.

[16:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “O Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of trouble. The literal which piles up attributes is of course more forceful than the predications. However, piling up poetic metaphors like this adds to the length of the English sentence and risks lack of understanding on the part of some readers. Some rhetorical force has been sacrificed for the sake of clarity.

[16:19]  ¹⁰ tn Once again the translation has sacrificed some of the rhetorical force for the sake of clarity and English style: Heb “Only falsehood did our ancestors possess, vanity and [things in which?] there was no one profiting in them.”

[44:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “that went out of our mouth.” I.e., everything we said, promised, or vowed.

[44:17]  ¹² tn Heb “sacrifice to the Queen of Heaven and pour out drink offerings to her.” The expressions have been combined to simplify and shorten the sentence. The same combination also occurs in vv. 18, 19.

[44:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “saw [or experienced] no disaster/trouble/harm.”

[23:29]  ¹⁴ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

[23:29]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “Because you.” Here ὅτι (Joti) has not been translated.

[23:29]  ¹⁶ tn Or perhaps “the monuments” (see L&N 7.75-76).

[23:30]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “fathers” (so also in v. 32).

[1:18]  ¹⁸ tn The connotation of the Greek is “before they came together in marital and domestic union” (so BDAG 970 s.v. συνέρχομαι 3).