Proverbs 5:20

5:20 But why should you be captivated, ¹  my son, by an adulteress,

and embrace the bosom of a different woman? ² 

Proverbs 6:35

6:35 He will not consider ³  any compensation; ⁴ 

he will not be willing, even if you multiply the compensation. ⁵ 

Proverbs 24:34

24:34 and your poverty will come like a bandit,

and your need like an armed robber.” ⁶ 

Proverbs 29:24

29:24 Whoever shares with a thief ⁷  is his own enemy; ⁸ 

he hears the oath to testify, ⁹  but does not talk.

[5:20]  ¹ tn In the interrogative clause the imperfect has a deliberative nuance.

[5:20]  ² tn Heb “foreigner” (so ASV, NASB), but this does not mean that the woman is non-Israelite. This term describes a woman who is outside the moral boundaries of the covenant community – she is another man’s wife, but since she acts with moral abandonment she is called “foreign.”

[6:35]  ³ tn Heb “lift up the face of,” meaning “regard.”

[6:35]  ⁴ tn The word rendered “compensation” is כֹּפֶר (cofer); it is essentially a ransom price, a sum to be paid to deliver another from debt, bondage, or crime. The husband cannot accept payment as a ransom for a life, since what has happened cannot be undone so easily.

[6:35]  ⁵ tn BDB 1005 s.v. שֹׁחַד suggests that this term means “hush money” or “bribe” (cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT). C. H. Toy takes it as legal compensation (Proverbs [ICC], 142).

[24:34]  ⁵ tn Heb “a man of shield.” This could refer to an armed warrior (so NRSV) but in this context, in collocation with the other word for “robber” in the previous line, it must refer to an armed criminal.

[29:24]  ⁷ sn The expression shares with a thief describes someone who is an “accomplice” (cf. NAB, NIV) because he is willing to share in the loot without taking part in the crime.

[29:24]  ⁸ tn Heb “hates his soul.” The accomplice is working against himself, for he will be punished along with the thief if he is caught.

[29:24]  ⁹ tn Heb “oath” or “imprecation”; ASV “adjuration.” This amounted to an “oath” or “curse” (cf. NAB “he hears himself put under a curse”; NRSV “one hears the victim’s curse”) either by or on behalf of the victim, that any witness to the crime must testify (cf. Lev 5:1). However, in this legal setting referring to “a victim’s curse” could be misleading (cf. also KJV “he heareth cursing”), since it could be understood to refer to profanity directed against those guilty of the crime rather than an imprecation called down on a witness who refused to testify (as in the present proverb). The present translation specifies this as an “oath to testify.”