Proverbs 4:3

4:3 When I was a son to my father, ¹ 

a tender only child ²  before my mother,

Proverbs 5:14

5:14 I almost ³  came to complete ruin ⁴ 

in the midst of the whole congregation!” ⁵ 

[4:3]  ¹ tn Or “a boy with my father.”

[4:3]  ² tc The LXX introduces the ideas of “obedient” and “beloved” for these two terms. This seems to be a free rendering, if not a translation of a different Hebrew textual tradition. The MT makes good sense and requires no emendation.

[5:14]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “I was in all evil” (cf. KJV, ASV).

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