Proverbs 30:9

30:9 lest I become satisfied and act deceptively ¹ 

and say, “Who is the Lord?”

Or lest I become poor and steal

and demean ²  the name of my God.

Proverbs 5:9

5:9 lest you give your vigor ³  to others

and your years to a cruel person,

Proverbs 22:25

22:25 lest you learn ⁴  his ways

and entangle yourself in a snare. ⁵ 

Proverbs 25:10

25:10 lest the one who hears it put you to shame

and your infamy ⁶  will never go away.

Proverbs 5:6

5:6 Lest ⁷  she should make level the path leading to life, ⁸ 

her paths are unstable ⁹  but she does not know it. ¹⁰ 

Proverbs 5:10

5:10 lest strangers devour ¹¹  your strength, ¹² 

and your labor ¹³  benefit ¹⁴  another man’s house.

Proverbs 9:8

9:8 Do not reprove ¹⁵  a mocker or ¹⁶  he will hate you;

reprove a wise person and he will love you.

Proverbs 24:18

24:18 lest the Lord see it, and be displeased, ¹⁷ 

and turn his wrath away from him. ¹⁸ 

Proverbs 25:16-17

25:16 When you find ¹⁹  honey, eat only what is sufficient for you,

lest you become stuffed ²⁰  with it and vomit it up. ²¹ 

25:17 Don’t set foot too frequently ²²  in your neighbor’s house,

lest he become weary ²³  of you and hate you.

Proverbs 26:5

26:5 Answer a fool according to his folly, ²⁴ 

lest he be wise in his own estimation. ²⁵ 

Proverbs 30:6

30:6 Do not add to his words,

lest he reprove you, and prove you to be a liar. ²⁶ 

Proverbs 30:10

30:10 Do not slander ²⁷  a servant to his master,

lest he curse you, and you are found guilty. ²⁸ 

Proverbs 20:13

20:13 Do not love sleep, ²⁹  lest you become impoverished;

open your eyes so that ³⁰  you might be satisfied with food. ³¹ 

Proverbs 25:8

25:8 Do not go out hastily to litigation, ³² 

or ³³  what will you do afterward

when your neighbor puts you to shame?

Proverbs 26:4

26:4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, ³⁴ 

lest you yourself also be like him. ³⁵ 

Proverbs 31:5

31:5 lest they drink and forget what is decreed,

and remove ³⁶  from all the poor ³⁷  their legal rights. ³⁸ 

[30:9]  ¹ tn The verb כָּחַשׁ (kakhash) means “to be disappointing; to deceive; to fail; to grow lean.” In the Piel stem it means “to deceive; to act deceptively; to cringe; to disappoint.” The idea of acting deceptively is illustrated in Hos 9:2 where it has the connotation of “disowning” or “refusing to acknowledge” (a meaning very close to its meaning here).

[30:9]  ² tn The Hebrew verb literally means “to take hold of; to seize”; this produces the idea of doing violence to the reputation of God.

[5:9]  ³ sn The term הוֹד (hod, “vigor; splendor; majesty”) in this context means the best time of one’s life (cf. NIV “your best strength”), the full manly vigor that will be wasted with licentiousness. Here it is paralleled by “years,” which refers to the best years of that vigor, the prime of life. Life would be ruined by living this way, or the revenge of the woman’s husband would cut it short.

[22:25]  ⁵ tn The verb פֶּן־תֶּאֱלַף (pen-te’elaf) is translated “lest you learn.” The idea is more precisely “become familiar with his ways.” The construction indicates that if one associates with such people he will become like them (cf. TEV “you might learn their habits”).

[22:25]  ⁶ sn The warning in this proverb is to avoid associating with a hothead because his influence could be fatal (a similar idea is found in the Instruction of Amenemope, chap. 9, 11:13-14 [ANET 423]).

[25:10]  ⁷ tn The noun דִּבָּה (dibbah, “infamy; defamation; evil report; whispering”) is used of an evil report here (e.g., Gen 37:2), namely a true report of evil doing. So if a person betrays another person’s confidence, he will never be able to live down the bad reputation he made as one who betrays secrets (cf. NIV).

[5:6]  ⁹ tn The particle פֶּן (pen) means “lest” (probably from “for the aversion of”). It occurs this once, unusually, preceding the principal clause (BDB 814 s.v.). It means that some action has been taken to avert or avoid what follows. She avoids the path of life, albeit ignorantly.

[5:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the path of life.” The noun חַיִּים (khayyim, “of life”) functions as a genitive of direction (“leading to”).

[5:6]  ¹¹ sn The verb נוּעַ (nua’) means “to quiver; to wave; to waver; to tremble”; cf. KJV “her ways are moveable”; NAB “her paths will ramble”; NLT “She staggers down a crooked trail.” The ways of the adulterous woman are unstable (BDB 631 s.v.).

[5:6]  ¹² sn The sadder part of the description is that this woman does not know how unstable her life is, or how uneven. However, Thomas suggests that it means, “she is not tranquil.” See D. W. Thomas, “A Note on לא תדע in Proverbs v 6,” JTS 37 (1936): 59.

[5:10]  ¹¹ tn Or “are sated, satisfied.”

[5:10]  ¹² tn The word כֹּחַ (coakh, “strength”) refers to what laborious toil would produce (so a metonymy of cause). Everything that this person worked for could become the property for others to enjoy.

[5:10]  ¹³ tn “labor, painful toil.”

[5:10]  ¹⁴ tn The term “benefit” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[9:8]  ¹³ tn In view of the expected response for reproof, the text now uses a negated jussive to advise against the attempt. This is paralleled antithetically by the imperative in the second colon. This imperative is in an understood conditional clause: “if you reprove a wise person.”

[9:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “lest he hate you.” The particle פֶּן (pen, “lest”) expresses fear or precaution (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 79, §476). The antonyms “love” and “hate” suggest that the latter means “reject” and the former means “choosing and embracing.”

[24:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and [it is] evil in his eyes.”

[24:18]  ¹⁶ sn The judgment of God should strike a note of fear in the heart of people (e.g., Lev 19:17-18). His judgment is not to be taken lightly, or personalized as a victory. If that were to happen, then the Lord might take pity on the enemies in their calamity, for he champions the downtrodden and defeated. These are probably personal enemies; the imprecatory psalms and the prophetic oracles present a different set of circumstances for the downfall of God’s enemies – even the book of Proverbs says that brings joy to the community.

[25:16]  ¹⁷ tn The verse simply begins “you have found honey.” Some turn this into an interrogative clause for the condition laid down (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NLT); most make the form in some way subordinate to the following instruction: “when you find…eat.”

[25:16]  ¹⁸ tn The verb means “to be satisfied; to be sated; to be filled.” Here it means more than satisfied, since it describes one who overindulges and becomes sick. The English verb “stuffed” conveys this idea well.

[25:16]  ¹⁹ sn The proverb warns that anything overindulged in can become sickening. The verse uses formal parallelism to express first the condition and then its consequences. It teaches that moderation is wise in the pleasures of life.

[25:17]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “make your foot rare.” The verb is הֹקַר (hoqar), the Hiphil imperative of יָקַר (yaqar, “to be rare; to be precious”). To “make one’s foot rare” would mean to keep the visits to a minimum as well as making them valuable – things increase in value, according to the nuances of this word, when they are rare.

[25:17]  ²⁰ tn Heb “gets full.” This verb means “to be sated; to be satisfied; to be filled.” It is often used with reference to food, but here it refers to frequent visits that wear out one’s welcome (cf. NLT).

[26:5]  ²¹ sn The apparent contradiction with the last verse has troubled commentators for some time. The Rabbis solved it by saying that v. 4 referred to secular things, but v. 5 referred to sacred or religious controversies. While this does not resolve the issue, it does give a sound application for the two verses together – in negligible issues one should just ignore the stupid person, but in issues that matter the fool must be dealt with, lest credence be given to what he says (W. G. Plaut, Proverbs, 266). The text presents two proverbs each of which presents an aspect of the whole truth. One should not lower himself to the level of the fool, but there are times when the lesser of two evils is to do so, other than let the fool gain confidence that he is a wise person or be considered wise by others. Paul, for example, talked like a “fool” to correct the foolish ideas of the Corinthians (2 Cor 11:16-17; 12:11).

[26:5]  ²² tn Heb “in his own eyes” (so NAB, NASB, NIV).

[30:6]  ²³ tn The form of the verb is a Niphal perfect tense with a vav consecutive from the root כָּזַב (kazav, “to lie”). In this stem it has the ideas of “been made deceptive,” or “shown to be false” or “proved to be a liar.” One who adds to or changes the word of the Lord will be seen as a liar.

[30:10]  ²⁵ tn The form תַּלְשֵׁן (talshen) is the Hiphil jussive (with the negative אַל, ’al); it is a denominative verb from the noun “tongue” (Heb “wag the tongue”). It means “to defame; to slander,” if the accusation is untrue. Some have suggested that the word might have the force of “denouncing” a slave to his master, accusing him before authorities (e.g., Deut 23:15-16). This proverb would then be a warning against meddling in the affairs of someone else.

[30:10]  ²⁶ tn If what was said were true, then there would be no culpability. But the implication here is that it was slander. And the effect of that will be a curse – the person who is the target of the slander will “curse” the person who slandered him (קָלַל [qalal] in the Piel means “to treat lightly [or, with contempt]; to curse”), and culpability will result (the verb וֹשׁם means “to be guilty; to make a guilt offering [or, reparation offering]”). This word for guilt suggests a connection to the Levitical teaching that the guilty had to make reparation for damages done (Lev 5). Cf. NAB “you will have to pay the penalty”; NIV, NLT “you will pay for it.”

[20:13]  ²⁷ sn The proverb uses antithetical parallelism to teach that diligence leads to prosperity. It contrasts loving sleep with opening the eyes, and poverty with satisfaction. Just as “sleep” can be used for slothfulness or laziness, so opening the eyes can represent vigorous, active conduct. The idioms have caught on in modern usage as well – things like “open your eyes” or “asleep on the job.”

[20:13]  ²⁸ tn The second line uses two imperatives in a sequence (without the vav [ו]): “open your eyes” and then (or, in order that) you will “be satisfied.”

[20:13]  ²⁹ tn Heb “bread” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV), although the term often serves in a generic sense for food in general.

[25:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “do not go out hastily to strive”; the verb “to strive” means dispute in the legal context. The last clause of v. 7, “what your eyes have seen,” does fit very well with the initial clause of v. 8. It would then say: What you see, do not take hastily to court, but if the case was not valid, he would end up in disgrace.

[25:8]  ³⁰ tn The clause begins with פֶּן (pen, “lest”) which seems a bit out of place in this line. C. H. Toy suggests changing it to כִּי (ki, “for”) to make a better connection, instead of supplying an ellipsis: “lest it be said what…” (Proverbs [ICC], 461).

[26:4]  ³¹ sn One should not answer a fool’s foolish questions in line with the fool’s mode of reasoning (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 274).

[26:4]  ³² sn The person who descends to the level of a fool to argue with him only looks like a fool as well.

[31:5]  ³³ tn The verb means “change,” perhaps expressed in reversing decisions or removing rights.

[31:5]  ³⁴ tn Heb “all the children of poverty.” This expression refers to the poor by nature. Cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV “the afflicted”; NIV “oppressed.”

[31:5]  ³⁵ sn The word is דִּין (din, “judgment”; so KJV). In this passage it refers to the cause or the plea for justice, i.e., the “legal rights.”