Discovery BoxProverbs 31:24
Context31:24 She makes linen garments 1 and sells them,
and supplies the merchants 2 with sashes.
Proverbs 31:1
Context31:1 The words of King Lemuel, 3
an oracle 4 that his mother taught him:
Proverbs 9:1-2
Context9:1 Wisdom has built her house;
she has carved out its seven pillars. 6
9:2 She has prepared her meat, 7 she has mixed her wine;
she also has arranged her table. 8
Proverbs 9:10
Context9:10 The beginning 9 of wisdom is to fear the Lord, 10
and acknowledging 11 the Holy One 12 is understanding.
Ezekiel 27:3-36
Context27:3 Say to Tyre, who sits at the entrance 13 of the sea, 14 merchant to the peoples on many coasts, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:
“‘O Tyre, you have said, “I am perfectly beautiful.”
27:4 15 Your borders are in the heart of the seas;
your builders have perfected your beauty.
27:5 They crafted 16 all your planks out of fir trees from Senir; 17
they took a cedar from Lebanon to make your mast.
27:6 They made your oars from oaks of Bashan;
they made your deck 18 with cypresses 19 from the Kittean isles. 20
27:7 Fine linen from Egypt, woven with patterns, was used for your sail
to serve as your banner;
blue and purple from the coastlands of Elishah 21 was used for your deck’s awning.
27:8 The leaders 22 of Sidon 23 and Arvad 24 were your rowers;
your skilled 25 men, O Tyre, were your captains.
27:9 The elders of Gebal 26 and her skilled men were within you, mending cracks; 27
all the ships of the sea and their mariners were within you to trade for your merchandise. 28
27:10 Men of Persia, Lud, 29 and Put were in your army, men of war.
They hung shield and helmet on you; they gave you your splendor.
27:11 The Arvadites 30 joined your army on your walls all around,
and the Gammadites 31 were in your towers.
They hung their quivers 32 on your walls all around;
they perfected your beauty.
27:12 “‘Tarshish 33 was your trade partner because of your abundant wealth; they exchanged silver, iron, tin, and lead for your products. 27:13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your clients; they exchanged slaves and bronze items for your merchandise. 27:14 Beth Togarmah exchanged horses, chargers, 34 and mules for your products. 27:15 The Dedanites 35 were your clients. Many coastlands were your customers; they paid 36 you with ivory tusks and ebony. 27:16 Edom 37 was your trade partner because of the abundance of your goods; they exchanged turquoise, purple, embroidered work, fine linen, coral, and rubies for your products. 27:17 Judah and the land of Israel were your clients; they traded wheat from Minnith, 38 millet, honey, olive oil, and balm for your merchandise. 27:18 Damascus was your trade partner because of the abundance of your goods and of all your wealth: wine from Helbon, white wool from Zahar, 27:19 and casks of wine 39 from Izal 40 they exchanged for your products. Wrought iron, cassia, and sweet cane were among your merchandise. 27:20 Dedan was your client in saddlecloths for riding. 27:21 Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were your trade partners; for lambs, rams, and goats they traded with you. 27:22 The merchants of Sheba and Raamah engaged in trade with you; they traded the best kinds of spices along with precious stones and gold for your products. 27:23 Haran, Kanneh, Eden, merchants from Sheba, Asshur, and Kilmad were your clients. 27:24 They traded with you choice garments, purple clothes and embroidered work, and multicolored carpets, bound and reinforced with cords; these were among your merchandise. 27:25 The ships of Tarshish 41 were the transports for your merchandise.
“‘So you were filled and weighed down in the heart of the seas.
27:26 Your rowers have brought you into surging waters.
The east wind has wrecked you in the heart of the seas.
27:27 Your wealth, products, and merchandise, your sailors and captains,
your ship’s carpenters, 42 your merchants,
and all your fighting men within you,
along with all your crew who are in you,
will fall into the heart of the seas on the day of your downfall.
27:28 At the sound of your captains’ cry the waves will surge; 43
27:29 They will descend from their ships – all who handle the oar,
the sailors and all the sea captains – they will stand on the land.
27:30 They will lament loudly 44 over you and cry bitterly.
They will throw dust on their heads and roll in the ashes; 45
27:31 they will tear out their hair because of you and put on sackcloth,
and they will weep bitterly over you with intense mourning. 46
27:32 As they wail they will lament over you, chanting:
“Who was like Tyre, like a tower 47 in the midst of the sea?”
27:33 When your products went out from the seas,
you satisfied many peoples;
with the abundance of your wealth and merchandise
you enriched the kings of the earth.
27:34 Now you are wrecked by the seas, in the depths of the waters;
your merchandise and all your company have sunk 48 along with you. 49
27:35 All the inhabitants of the coastlands are shocked at you,
and their kings are horribly afraid – their faces are troubled.
27:36 The traders among the peoples hiss at you;
you have become a horror, and will be no more.’”
[31:24] 1 tn The first word of the fifteenth line begins with ס (samek), the fifteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
[31:24] 2 tn Heb “to the Canaanites.” These are the Phoenician traders that survived the wars and continued to do business down to the exile.
[31:1] 3 sn Nothing else is known about King Lemuel aside from this mention in the book of Proverbs. Jewish legend identifies him as Solomon, making this advice from his mother Bathsheba; but there is no evidence for that. The passage is the only direct address to a king in the book of Proverbs – something that was the norm in wisdom literature of the ancient world (Leah L. Brunner, “King and Commoner in Proverbs and Near Eastern Sources,” Dor le Dor 10 [1982]: 210-19; Brunner argues that the advice is religious and not secular).
[31:1] 4 tn Some English versions take the Hebrew noun translated “oracle” here as a place name specifying the kingdom of King Lemuel; cf. NAB “king of Massa”; CEV “King Lemuel of Massa.”
[9:1] 5 sn Chapter 9 forms the conclusion of the lengthy introduction to the book. Both wisdom and folly will make their final appeals; and both appeal to the simpletons. Wisdom offers life with no mention of pleasure; folly offers pleasure with no mention of death. The first twelve verses concern accepting wisdom: the invitation of wisdom (1-6), the description of the responses (7-11), and the consequence (12). Verses 13-18 concern accepting folly: the invitation (13-17) and the consequence (18).
[9:1] 6 sn Wisdom is personified as a wise woman. She has prepared a house and established it on seven pillars. This is a reference to the habitable world (e.g., 8:31). For the equation of the house and the world, e.g., 8:29; Job 38:6; and Psalm 104:5 (also G. Boström, Proverbiastudien [LUÅ], 1-14). The “seven pillars” have been variously interpreted, but since seven is a number for completeness and sacredness, the idea seems to be that wisdom produced a perfect world.
[9:2] 7 tn Heb “she has killed her killing.” Cf. KJV “hath killed her beasts”; NAB “has dressed her meat”; NASB “has prepared her food.”
[9:2] 8 sn Wisdom has prepared a sumptuous banquet in this house and sends out her maids to call the simple to come and eat (M. Lichtenstein, “The Banquet Motif in Keret and in Proverbs 9,” JANESCU 1 [1968/69]: 19-31). The figures of meat and wine represent the good teaching of wisdom that will be palatable and profitable (implied comparisons). Compare Isaiah 55:1-2 and John 6:51, 55 for similar uses of the figures. The idea of mixing wine could refer to the practice of mixing wine with spices or with water (as the LXX text assumes; e.g., Prov 23:30; Isa 5:22). Mixed wine was the most intoxicating; thus, her wisdom is attractive. All the imagery lets the simple know that what wisdom has to offer is marvelous.
[9:10] 9 sn The difference between תְּחִלַּת (tÿkhillat) here and רֵאשִׁית (re’shit) of 1:7, if there is any substantial difference, is that this term refers to the starting point of wisdom, and the earlier one indicates the primary place of wisdom (K&D 16:202).
[9:10] 10 tn Heb “fear of the
[9:10] 11 tn Heb “knowledge of the Holy One” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
[9:10] 12 tn The word is in the plural in the Hebrew (literally “holy ones”; KJV “the holy”). It was translated “holy men” in Tg. Prov 9:10. But it probably was meant to signify the majestic nature of the
[27:3] 13 tn Heb “entrances.” The plural noun may reflect the fact that Tyre had two main harbors.
[27:3] 14 sn Rome, another economic power, is described in a similar way in Rev 17:1.
[27:4] 15 tn The city of Tyre is described in the following account as a merchant ship.
[27:5] 17 tn Perhaps the hull or deck. The term is dual, so perhaps it refers to a double-decked ship.
[27:6] 19 tc The Hebrew reads “Your deck they made ivory, daughter of Assyria.” The syntactically difficult “ivory” is understood here as dittography and omitted, though some construe this to refer to ivory inlays. “Daughter of Assyria” is understood here as improper word division and the vowels repointed as “cypresses.”
[27:6] 20 tn Heb “from the coastlands (or islands) of Kittim,” generally understood to be a reference to the island of Cyprus, where the Phoenicians had a trading colony on the southeast coast. Many modern English versions have “Cyprus” (CEV, TEV), “the coastlands of Cyprus” (NASB), “the coasts of Cyprus” (NIV, NRSV), or “the southern coasts of Cyprus” (NLT).
[27:7] 21 sn This is probably a reference to Cyprus.
[27:8] 22 tc The MT reads “the residents of”; the LXX reads “your rulers who dwell in.” With no apparent reason for the LXX to add “the rulers” many suppose something has dropped out of the Hebrew text. While more than one may be possible, Allen’s proposal, positing a word meaning “elders,” is the most likely to explain the omission in the MT from a graphic standpoint and also provides a parallel to the beginning of v. 9. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:81.a parallel to v. 9.
[27:8] 23 map For location see Map1 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.
[27:8] 24 sn Sidon and Arvad, like Tyre, were Phoenician coastal cities.
[27:9] 26 sn Another Phoenician coastal city located between Sidon and Arvad.
[27:9] 27 tn Heb “strengthening damages.” Here “to strengthen” means to repair. The word for “damages” occurs several times in 1 Kgs 12 about some type of damage to the temple, which may have referred to or included cracks. Since the context describes Tyre in its glory, we do not expect this reference to damages to be of significant scale, even if there are repairmen. This may refer to using pitch to seal the seams of the ship, which had to be done periodically and could be considered routine maintenance rather than repair of damage.
[27:9] 28 sn The reference to “all the ships of the sea…within you” suggests that the metaphor is changing; previously Tyre had been described as a magnificent ship, but now the description shifts back to an actual city. The “ships of the sea” were within Tyre’s harbor. Verse 11 refers to “walls” and “towers” of the city.
[27:11] 30 tn Heb “sons of Arvad.”
[27:11] 31 sn The identity of the Gammadites is uncertain.
[27:11] 32 tn See note on “quivers” in Jer 51:11 on the meaning of Hebrew שֶׁלֶט (shelet) and also M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:553.
[27:12] 33 sn Tarshish refers to a distant seaport sometimes believed to be located in southern Spain (others identified it as Carthage in North Africa). In any event it represents here a distant, rich, and exotic port which was a trading partner of Tyre.
[27:14] 34 tn The way in which these horses may have been distinguished from other horses is unknown. Cf. ASV “war-horses” (NASB, NIV, NRSV, CEV all similar); NLT “chariot horses.”
[27:15] 35 tn Heb “sons of Dedan.”
[27:15] 36 tn Heb “they returned as your gift.”
[27:16] 37 tc Many Hebrew
[27:17] 38 sn The location is mentioned in Judg 11:33.
[27:19] 39 tc The MT leaves v. 18 as an incomplete sentence and begins v. 19 with “and Dan and Javan (Ionia) from Uzal.” The LXX mentions “wine.” The translation follows an emendation assuming some confusions of vav and yod. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:82.
[27:19] 40 sn According to L. C. Allen (Ezekiel [WBC], 2:82), Izal was located between Haran and the Tigris and was famous for its wine.
[27:25] 41 tn Or perhaps “Large merchant ships.” The expression “ships of Tarshish” may describe a class of vessel, that is, large oceangoing merchant ships.
[27:27] 42 tn Heb “your repairers of damage.” See v. 9.
[27:28] 43 tn Compare this phrase to Isa 57:20 and Amos 8:8. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:561.
[27:30] 44 tn Heb “make heard over you with their voice.”
[27:30] 45 tn Note a similar expression to “roll in the ashes” in Mic 1:10.
[27:31] 46 tn Heb “and they will weep concerning you with bitterness of soul, (with) bitter mourning.”
[27:32] 47 tn As it stands, the meaning of the Hebrew text is unclear. The translation follows the suggestion of M. Dahood, “Accadian-Ugaritic dmt in Ezekiel 27:32,” Bib 45 (1964): 83-84. Several other explanations and emendations have been offered. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:83, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:85-86, for a list of options.
