Proverbs 7:22

7:22 Suddenly he went ¹  after her

like an ox that goes to the slaughter,

like a stag prancing into a trapper’s snare ² 

Proverbs 28:14

28:14 Blessed is the one who is always cautious, ³ 

but whoever hardens his heart ⁴  will fall into evil.

Proverbs 29:9

29:9 If a wise person ⁵  goes to court ⁶  with a foolish person,

there is no peace ⁷  whether he is angry or laughs. ⁸ 

Proverbs 29:1

29:1 The one who stiffens his neck ⁹  after numerous rebukes ¹⁰ 

will suddenly be destroyed ¹¹  without remedy. ¹² 

Proverbs 19:2

19:2 It is dangerous ¹³  to have zeal ¹⁴  without knowledge,

and the one who acts hastily ¹⁵  makes poor choices. ¹⁶ 

Proverbs 20:10-11

20:10 Diverse weights and diverse measures ¹⁷  –

the Lord abhors ¹⁸  both of them.

20:11 Even a young man ¹⁹  is known ²⁰  by his actions,

whether his activity is pure and whether it is right. ²¹ 

Proverbs 20:18

20:18 Plans ²²  are established by counsel,

so ²³  make war ²⁴  with guidance.

Ecclesiastes 10:13

10:13 At the beginning his words ²⁵  are foolish

and at the end ²⁶  his talk ²⁷  is wicked madness, ²⁸ 

Mark 6:17-19

6:17 For Herod himself had sent men, arrested John, and bound him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod ²⁹  had married her. 6:18 For John had repeatedly told ³⁰  Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” ³¹  6:19 So Herodias nursed a grudge against him and wanted to kill him. But ³²  she could not

Mark 6:24-25

6:24 So ³³  she went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?” Her mother ³⁴  said, “The head of John the baptizer.” ³⁵  6:25 Immediately she hurried back to the king and made her request: ³⁶  “I want the head of John the Baptist on a platter immediately.”

John 9:40

9:40 Some of the Pharisees ³⁷  who were with him heard this ³⁸  and asked him, ³⁹  “We are not blind too, are we?” ⁴⁰ 

[7:22]  ¹ tn The participle with “suddenly” gives a more vivid picture, almost as if to say “there he goes.”

[7:22]  ² tn The present translation follows R. B. Y. Scott (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes [AB], 64). This third colon of the verse would usually be rendered, “fetters to the chastening of a fool” (KJV, ASV, and NASB are all similar). But there is no support that עֶכֶס (’ekhes) means “fetters.” It appears in Isaiah 3:16 as “anklets.” The parallelism here suggests that some animal imagery is required. Thus the ancient versions have “as a dog to the bonds.”

[28:14]  ³ tn Most commentators (and some English versions, e.g., NIV) assume that the participle מְפַחֵד (mÿfakhed, “fears”) means “fears the Lord,” even though “the Lord” is not present in the text. Such an assumption would be more convincing if the word יִרְאַת (yir’at) had been used. It is possible that the verse refers to fearing sin or its consequences. In other words, the one who is always apprehensive about the nature and consequences of sin will avoid sin and find God’s blessing. Of course the assumption that the phrase means “fear the Lord” could be correct as well. There would be little difference in the outcome; in either case sin would be avoided.

[28:14]  ⁴ sn The one who “hardens his heart” in this context is the person who refuses to fear sin and its consequences. The image of the “hard heart” is one of a stubborn will, unyielding and unbending (cf. NCV, TEV, NLT). This individual will fall into sin.

[29:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “a wise man…a foolish man.”

[29:9]  ⁶ tn The verb שָׁפַט (shafat) means “to judge.” In the Niphal stem it could be passive, but is more frequently reciprocal: “to enter into controversy” or “to go to court.” The word is usually used in connection with a lawsuit (so many recent English versions), but can also refer to an argument (e.g., 1 Sam 12:7; Isa 43:26); cf. NAB “disputes”; NASB “has a controversy.”

[29:9]  ⁷ tn The noun נָחַת (nakhat) is a derivative of נוּחַ (nuakh, “to rest”) and so means “quietness” or “rest,” i.e., “peace.”

[29:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he is angry and he laughs.” The construction uses the conjunctive vav to express alternate actions: “whether…or.”

[29:1]  ⁹ tn The idiom “to harden the neck” (מַקְשֶׁה־עֹרֶף, maqsheh-’oref) is the idea of resisting the rebukes and persisting in obstinacy (e.g., Exod 32:9). The opposite of a “stiff neck” would be the bending back, i.e., submission.

[29:1]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew construction is אִישׁ תּוֹכָחוֹת (’ish tokhakhot, “a man of rebukes”), meaning “a man who has (or receives) many rebukes.” This describes a person who is deserving of punishment and who has been given many warnings. The text says, then, “a man of rebukes hardening himself.”

[29:1]  ¹¹ sn The stubborn person refuses to listen; he will suddenly be destroyed when the calamity strikes (e.g., Prov 6:15; 13:18; 15:10).

[29:1]  ¹² tn Or “healing” (NRSV).

[19:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “not good.” This is a figure known as tapeinosis (a deliberate understatement to emphasize a worst-case scenario): “it is dangerous!”

[19:2]  ¹⁴ tn The interpretation of this line depends largely on the meaning of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) which has a broad range of meanings: (1) the breathing substance of man, (2) living being, (3) life, (4) person, (5) seat of the appetites, (6) seat of emotions and passions, (7) activities of intellect, emotion and will, (8) moral character, etc. (BDB 659-61 s.v.). In light of the synonymous parallelism, the most likely nuance here is “zeal, passion” (HALOT 713 s.v. 8). NIV takes the word in the sense of “vitality” and “drive” – “it is not good to have zeal without knowledge” (cf. NCV, TEV, and NLT which are all similar).

[19:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he who is hasty with his feet.” The verb אוּץ (’uts) means “to be pressed; to press; to make haste.” The verb is followed by the preposition בְּ (bet) which indicates that with which one hastens – his feet. The word “feet” is a synecdoche of part for the whole person – body and mind working together (cf. NLT “a person who moves too quickly”).

[19:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “misses the goal.” The participle חוֹטֵא (khote’) can be translated “sins” (cf. KJV, ASV), but in this context it refers only to actions without knowledge, which could lead to sin, or could lead simply to making poor choices (cf. NAB “blunders”; NASB “errs”; NCV “might make a mistake”).

[20:10]  ¹⁷ tn The construction simply uses repetition to express different kinds of weights and measures: “a stone and a stone, an ephah and an ephah.”

[20:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “an abomination of the Lord.” The phrase features a subjective genitive: “the Lord abhors.”

[20:11]  ¹⁹ sn In the first nine chapters of the book of Proverbs the Hebrew term נַעַר (na’ar) referred to an adolescent, a young person whose character was being formed in his early life.

[20:11]  ²⁰ sn The Hebrew verb נָכַר (nakhar) means “to recognize” more than simply “to know.” Certain character traits can be recognized in a child by what he does (cf. NCV “by their behavior”).

[20:11]  ²¹ sn Character is demonstrated by actions at any age. But the emphasis of the book of Proverbs would also be that if the young child begins to show such actions, then the parents must try to foster and cultivate them; if not, they must try to develop them through teaching and discipline.

[20:18]  ²² tn The noun form is plural, but the verb is singular, suggesting either an abstract plural or a collective plural is being used here.

[20:18]  ²³ tn The clause begins with vav (ו) on “with guidance.” But the clause has an imperative for its main verb. One could take the imperfect tense in the first colon as an imperfect of injunction, and then this clause would be also instructional. But the imperfect tense is a Niphal, and so it is better to take the first colon as the foundational clause and the second colon as the consequence (cf. NAB): If that is true, then you should do this.

[20:18]  ²⁴ sn There have been attempts by various commentators to take “war” figuratively to mean life’s struggles, litigation, or evil inclinations. But there is no need and little justification for such interpretations. The proverb simply describes the necessity of taking counsel before going to war.

[10:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the words of his mouth.”

[10:13]  ²⁶ sn The terms “beginning” and “end” form a merism, a figure of speech in which two opposites are contrasted to indicate totality (e.g., Deut 6:7; Ps 139:8; Eccl 3:2-8). The words of a fool are madness from “start to finish.”

[10:13]  ²⁷ tn Heb “his mouth.”

[10:13]  ²⁸ tn Heb “madness of evil.”

[6:17]  ²⁹ tn Grk “he”; here it is necessary to specify the referent as “Herod,” since the nearest previous antecedent in the translation is Philip.

[6:18]  ³⁰ tn The imperfect tense verb is here rendered with an iterative force.

[6:18]  ³¹ sn It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife. This was a violation of OT law (Lev 18:16; 20:21). In addition, both Herod Antipas and Herodias had each left marriages to enter into this union.

[6:19]  ³² tn Grk “and.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[6:24]  ³³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of previous action(s) in the narrative.

[6:24]  ³⁴ tn Grk “She said”; the referent (the girl’s mother) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:24]  ³⁵ tn While Matthew and Luke consistently use the noun βαπτίστης (baptisths, “the Baptist”) to refer to John, as a kind of a title, Mark employs the substantival participle ὁ βαπτίζων (Jo baptizwn, “the one who baptizes, the baptizer”) to describe him (though twice he does use the noun [Mark 6:25; 8:28]).

[6:25]  ³⁶ tn Grk “she asked, saying.” The participle λέγουσα (legousa) is redundant and has not been translated.

[9:40]  ³⁷ sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.

[9:40]  ³⁸ tn Grk “heard these things.”

[9:40]  ³⁹ tn Grk “and said to him.”

[9:40]  ⁴⁰ tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “are we?”).