Proverbs 6:9

6:9 How long, you sluggard, will you lie there?

When will you rise from your sleep? ¹ 

Proverbs 6:19

6:19 a false witness who pours out lies, ² 

and a person who spreads discord ³  among family members. ⁴ 

Proverbs 7:18

7:18 Come, let’s drink deeply ⁵  of lovemaking ⁶  until morning,

let’s delight ourselves ⁷  with sexual intercourse. ⁸ 

Proverbs 8:26

8:26 before he made the earth and its fields, ⁹ 

or the beginning ¹⁰  of the dust of the world.

Proverbs 14:25

14:25 A truthful witness ¹¹  rescues lives, ¹² 

but the one who breathes lies brings ¹³  deception. ¹⁴ 

Proverbs 19:5

19:5 A false witness ¹⁵  will not go unpunished,

and the one who spouts out ¹⁶  lies will not escape punishment. ¹⁷ 

Proverbs 19:9

19:9 A false witness will not go unpunished,

and the one who spouts out ¹⁸  lies will perish. ¹⁹ 

Proverbs 19:28

19:28 A crooked witness ²⁰  scorns justice,

and the mouth of the wicked devours ²¹  iniquity.

Proverbs 21:28

21:28 A lying witness ²²  will perish, ²³ 

but the one who reports accurately speaks forever. ²⁴ 

Proverbs 24:28

24:28 Do not be a witness against your neighbor without cause, ²⁵ 

and do not deceive with your words. ²⁶ 

[6:9]  ¹ sn The use of the two rhetorical questions is designed to rebuke the lazy person in a forceful manner. The sluggard is spending too much time sleeping.

[6:19]  ² sn The Lord hates perjury and a lying witness (e.g., Ps 40:4; Amos 2:4; Mic 1:4). This is a direct violation of the law (Exod 20).

[6:19]  ³ sn Dissension is attributed in Proverbs to contentious people (21:9; 26:21; 25:24) who have a short fuse (15:8).

[6:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “brothers,” although not limited to male siblings only. Cf. NRSV, CEV “in a family”; TEV “among friends.”

[7:18]  ³ tn The form נִרְוֶה (nirveh) is the plural cohortative; following the imperative “come” the form expresses the hortatory “let’s.” The verb means “to be saturated; to drink one’s fill,” and can at times mean “to be intoxicated with.”

[7:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “loves.” The word דּוֹד (dod) means physical love or lovemaking. It is found frequently in the Song of Solomon for the loved one, the beloved. Here the form (literally, “loves”) is used in reference to multiple acts of sexual intercourse, as the phrase “until morning” suggests.

[7:18]  ⁵ tn The form is the Hitpael cohortative of עָלַס (’alas), which means “to rejoice.” Cf. NIV “let’s enjoy ourselves.”

[7:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “with love.”

[8:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “open places.”

[8:26]  ⁵ tn Here רֹאשׁ (ro’sh) means “beginning” with reference to time (BDB 911 s.v. 4.b).

[14:25]  ⁵ tn Heb “a witness of truth”; cf. CEV “an honest witness.”

[14:25]  ⁶ tn The noun נְפָשׁוֹת (nÿfashot) often means “souls,” but here “lives” – it functions as a metonymy for life (BDB 659 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 3.c).

[14:25]  ⁷ tn The term “brings” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity. Also possible, “is deceitful.”

[14:25]  ⁸ tc Several commentators suggest emending the text from the noun מִרְמָה (mirmah, “deception”) to the participle מְרַמֶּה (mÿrameh, “destroys”). However, this revocalization is not necessary because the MT makes sense as it stands: A false witness destroys lives.

[19:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “a witness of lies.” This expression is an attributive genitive: “a lying witness” (cf. CEV “dishonest witnesses”). This is paralleled by “the one who pours out lies.”

[19:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “breathes out”; NAB “utters”; NIV “pours out.”

[19:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “will not escape” (so NAB, NASB); NIV “will not go free.” Here “punishment” is implied, and has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[19:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “breathes out”; NAB “utters”; NIV “pours out.”

[19:9]  ⁸ sn The verse is the same as v. 5, except that the last word changes to the verb “will perish” (cf. NCV “will die”; CEV, NLT “will be destroyed”; TEV “is doomed”).

[19:28]  ⁸ tn Heb “a witness who is worthless and wicked” (עֵד בְּלִיַּעַל, ’ed beliyya’al). Cf. KJV “an ungodly witness”; NAB “an unprincipled witness”; NCV “an evil witness”; NASB “a rascally witness.”

[19:28]  ⁹ tn The parallel line says the mouth of the wicked “gulps down” or “swallows” (יְבַלַּע, yÿvala’) iniquity. The verb does not seem to fit the line (or the proverb) very well. Some have emended the text to יַבִּיעַ (yavia’, “gushes”) as in 15:28 (cf. NAB “pours out”). Driver followed an Arabic balaga to get “enunciates,” which works well with the idea of a false witness (W. McKane, Proverbs [OTL], 529). As it stands, however, the line indicates that in what he says the wicked person accepts evil – and that could describe a false witness.

[21:28]  ⁹ tn Heb “a witness of lies,” an attributive genitive.

[21:28]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew verb translated “will perish” (יֹאבֵד, yo’bed) could mean that the false witness will die, either by the hand of God or by the community. But it also could be taken in the sense that the false testimony will be destroyed. This would mean that “false witness” would be a metonymy of cause – what he says will perish (cf. NCV “will be forgotten”).

[21:28]  ¹¹ tn Heb “but a man who listens speaks forever.” The first part of it may mean (1) a true witness, one who reports what he actually hears. But it may also refer to (2) someone who listens to the false testimony given by the false witness. The NIV follows the suggestion of a homonym for the Hebrew word with the meaning “will perish/be destroyed”: “will be destroyed forever.” This suggests a synonymous pair of ideas rather than a contrast. Others accept antithetical parallelism. C. H. Toy suggested an idea like “be established” to contrast with “will perish” (Proverbs [ICC], 411). W. McKane suggested it meant the truthful witness “will speak to the end” without being put down (Proverbs [OTL], 556). It is simpler to interpret the words that are here in the sense of a contrast. The idea of speaking forever/to the end would then be hyperbolic.

[24:28]  ¹⁰ sn The legal setting of these sayings continues with this warning against being a false accuser. The “witness” in this line is one who has no basis for his testimony. “Without cause” is the adverb from חָנָן (khanan), which means “to be gracious.” The adverb means “without a cause; gratis; free.” It is also cognate to the word חֵן (“grace” or “unmerited [or, undeserved] favor.” The connotation is that the opposite is due. So the adverb would mean that there was no cause, no justification for the witness, but that the evidence seemed to lie on the other side.

[24:28]  ¹¹ tn Heb “lips.” The term “lips” is a metonymy of cause; it means “what is said.” Here it refers to what is said in court as a false witness.