Proverbs 5:2

5:2 in order to safeguard ¹  discretion, ² 

and that your lips may guard knowledge.

Proverbs 24:8

24:8 The one who plans to do evil

will be called a scheming person. ³ 

Proverbs 8:12

8:12 “I, wisdom, live with prudence, ⁴ 

and I find ⁵  knowledge and discretion.

Proverbs 12:2

12:2 A good person obtains favor from the Lord,

but the Lord ⁶  condemns a person with wicked schemes. ⁷ 

Proverbs 14:17

14:17 A person who has a quick temper ⁸  does foolish things,

and a person with crafty schemes ⁹  is hated. ¹⁰ 

[5:2]  ¹ tn Heb “keep, protect, guard.”

[5:2]  ² sn This “discretion” is the same word in 1:4; it is wise, prudential consideration, careful planning, or the ability to devise plans with a view to the best way to carry them out. If that ability is retained then temptations to digress will not interfere.

[24:8]  ³ tn Heb “possessor of schemes”; NAB “an intriguer.” The picture of the wicked person is graphic: He devises plans to do evil and is known as a schemer. Elsewhere the “schemes” are outrageous and lewd (e.g., Lev 18:7; Judg 20:6). Here the description portrays him as a cold, calculating, active person: “the fool is capable of intense mental activity but it adds up to sin” (W. McKane, Proverbs [OTL], 399).

[8:12]  ⁵ tn The noun is “shrewdness,” i.e., the right use of knowledge in special cases (see also the discussion in 1:4); cf. NLT “good judgment.” The word in this sentence is an adverbial accusative of specification.

[8:12]  ⁶ tn This verb form is an imperfect, whereas the verb in the first colon was a perfect tense. The perfect should be classified as a gnomic perfect, and this form a habitual imperfect, because both verbs describe the nature of wisdom.

[12:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “but he condemns”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “a man of wicked plans.” The noun מְזִמּוֹת (mÿzimmot, “evil plans”) functions as an attributive genitive: “an evil-scheming man.” Cf. NASB “a man who devises evil”; NAB “the schemer.”

[14:17]  ⁹ sn The proverb discusses two character traits that are distasteful to others – the quick tempered person (“short of anger” or impatient) and the crafty person (“man of devices”). C. H. Toy thinks that the proverb is antithetical and renders it “but a wise man endures” (Proverbs [ICC], 292). In other words, the quick-tempered person acts foolishly and loses people’s respect, but the wise man does not.

[14:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “a man of devices.”

[14:17]  ¹¹ tc The LXX reads “endures” (from נָשָׂא, nasa’) rather than “is hated” (from שָׂנֵא, sane’). This change seems to have arisen on the assumption that a contrast was needed. It has: “a man of thought endures.” Other versions take מְזִמּוֹת (mÿzimmot) in a good sense; but antithetical parallelism is unwarranted here.