Proverbs 4:21

4:21 Do not let them depart ¹  from your sight,

guard ²  them within your heart; ³ 

Proverbs 5:15

5:15 Drink water from your own cistern

and running water from your own well. ⁴ 

Proverbs 8:20

8:20 I walk in the path of righteousness,

in the pathway of justice,

Proverbs 1:14

1:14 Join with us! ⁵ 

We will all share ⁶  equally in what we steal.” ⁷ 

Proverbs 5:14

5:14 I almost ⁸  came to complete ruin ⁹ 

in the midst of the whole congregation!” ¹⁰ 

Proverbs 22:13

22:13 The sluggard says, “There is a lion ¹¹  outside!

I will be killed in the middle of the streets!” ¹² 

Proverbs 17:2

17:2 A servant who acts wisely ¹³  will rule

over ¹⁴  an heir ¹⁵  who behaves shamefully, ¹⁶ 

and will share the inheritance along with the relatives. ¹⁷ 

Proverbs 27:22

27:22 If you should pound ¹⁸  the fool in the mortar

among the grain ¹⁹  with the pestle,

his foolishness would not depart from him. ²⁰ 

[4:21]  ¹ tn The Hiphil form יַלִּיזוּ (yallizu) follows the Aramaic with gemination. The verb means “to turn aside; to depart” (intransitive Hiphil or inner causative).

[4:21]  ² tn Or “keep” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV and many others).

[4:21]  ³ sn The words “eyes” and “heart” are metonymies of subject representing the faculties of each. Cf. CEV “think about it all.”

[5:15]  ⁴ sn Paul Kruger develops this section as an allegory consisting of a series of metaphors. He suggests that what is at issue is private versus common property. The images of the cistern, well, or fountain are used of a wife (e.g., Song 4:15) because she, like water, satisfies desires. Streams of water in the street would then mean sexual contact with a lewd woman. According to 7:12 she never stays home but is in the streets and is the property of many (P. Kruger, “Promiscuity and Marriage Fidelity? A Note on Prov 5:15-18,” JNSL 13 [1987]: 61-68).

[1:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “Throw in your lot with us.” This is a figurative expression (hypocatastasis) urging the naive to join their life of crime and divide their loot equally. The noun גּוֹרָל (goral, “lot”) can refer to (1) lot thrown for decision-making processes, e.g., choosing the scapegoat (Lev 16:8), discovering a guilty party (Jonah 1:7) or allocating property (Josh 18:6); (2) allotted portion (Josh 15:1) and (3) allotted fate or future destiny (Prov 1:14; Dan 12:13; see BDB 174 s.v.). Here the criminals urged the lad to share their life. The verb תַּפִּיל (tappil) is an imperfect of injunction: “Throw in…!” but might also be an imperfect of permission: “you may throw.” It functions metonymically as an invitation to join their life of crime: “share with us” (BDB 658 s.v. 3).

[1:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “there will be to all of us.”

[1:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “one purse” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV). The term כִּיס (kis, “purse; bag”) is a synecdoche of container (= purse) for contents (= stolen goods). The adjective אֶחָד (’ekhad, “one”) indicates that the thieves promised to share equally in what they had stolen.

[5:14]  ¹⁰ tn The expression כִּמְעַט (kim’at) is “like a little.” It means “almost,” and is used of unrealized action (BDB 590 s.v. 2). Cf. NCV “I came close to”; NLT “I have come to the brink of.”

[5:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I was in all evil” (cf. KJV, ASV).

[5:14]  ¹² tn The text uses the two words “congregation and assembly” to form a hendiadys, meaning the entire assembly.

[22:13]  ¹³ sn The proverb humorously describes the sluggard as making ridiculous excuses for not working – he might be eaten by a lion (e.g., 26:13). It is possible that “lion” is figurative, intended to represent someone who is like a lion, but this detracts from the humor of the exaggeration.

[22:13]  ¹⁴ tc The LXX changes the phrase to read “murderers in the street” to form a better parallelism, possibly because the verb רָצַח (ratsakh) is used only of humans, not wild animals. The NIV attempts to solve the problem by making the second line a separate claim by the sluggard: “or, ‘I will be murdered in the streets!’”

[17:2]  ¹⁶ sn The setting is in the ancient world where a servant rarely advanced beyond his or her station in life. But there are notable exceptions (e.g., Gen 15:3 where the possibility is mentioned, 1 Chr 2:35 where it changed through marriage, and 2 Sam 16:1-4; 19:24-30, with the story of Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth). This proverb focuses on a servant who is wise, one who uses all his abilities effectively – a Joseph figure.

[17:2]  ¹⁷ sn The parallelism indicates that “ruling over” and “sharing in the inheritance” means that the disgraceful son will be disinherited.

[17:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “son.”

[17:2]  ¹⁹ tn The form מֵבִישׁ (mevish) is a Hiphil participle, modifying בֵן (ben). This original heir would then be one who caused shame or disgrace to the family, probably by showing a complete lack of wisdom in the choices he made.

[17:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “in the midst of the brothers”; NIV “as one of the brothers.”

[27:22]  ¹⁹ tn The verb means “to pound” in a mortar with a pestle (cf. NRSV “Crush”; NLT “grind”). The imperfect is in a conditional clause, an unreal, hypothetical condition to make the point.

[27:22]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew term רִיפוֹת (rifot) refers to some kind of grain spread out to dry and then pounded. It may refer to barley groats (coarsely ground barley), but others have suggested the term means “cheeses” (BDB 937 s.v.). Most English versions have “grain” without being more specific; NAB “grits.”

[27:22]  ²¹ tn The LXX contains this paraphrase: “If you scourge a fool in the assembly, dishonoring him, you would not remove his folly.” This removes the imagery of mortar and pestle from the verse. Using the analogy of pounding something in a mortar, the proverb is saying even if a fool was pounded or pulverized, meaning severe physical punishment, his folly would not leave him – it is too ingrained in his nature.