Proverbs 6:9

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

When will you rise from your sleep? ¹ 

Proverbs 7:18

7:18 Come, let’s drink deeply ²  of lovemaking ³  until morning,

let’s delight ourselves ⁴  with sexual intercourse. ⁵ 

Proverbs 8:26

8:26 before he made the earth and its fields, ⁶ 

or the beginning ⁷  of the dust of the world.

Proverbs 12:19

12:19 The one who tells the truth ⁸  will endure forever,

but the one who lies ⁹  will last only for a moment. ¹⁰ 

[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.

[7:18]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn The form is the Hitpael cohortative of עָלַס (’alas), which means “to rejoice.” Cf. NIV “let’s enjoy ourselves.”

[7:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “with love.”

[8:26]  ³ tn Heb “open places.”

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

[12:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “a lip of truth.” The genitive אֱמֶת (’emet, “truth”) functions as an attributive adjective: “truthful lip.” The term שְׂפַת (sÿfat, “lip”) functions as a synecdoche of part (= lip) for the whole (= person): “truthful person.” The contrast is between “the lip of truth” and the “tongue of lying.”

[12:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “a tongue of deceit.” The genitive שָׁקֶר (shaqer, “deceit”) functions as an attributive genitive. The noun לָשׁוֹן (lashon, “tongue”) functions as a synecdoche of part (= tongue) for the whole (= person): “lying person.”

[12:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “while I would twinkle.” This expression is an idiom meaning “only for a moment.” The twinkling of the eye, the slightest movement, signals the brevity of the life of a lie (hyperbole). But truth will be established (תִּכּוֹן, tikon), that is, be made firm and endure.