Proverbs 8:10-13

8:10 Receive my instruction ¹  rather than ²  silver,

and knowledge rather than choice gold.

8:11 For wisdom is better than rubies,

and desirable things cannot be compared ³  to her.

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

and I find ⁵  knowledge and discretion.

8:13 The fear of the Lord is to hate ⁶  evil;

I hate arrogant pride ⁷  and the evil way

and perverse utterances. ⁸ 

[8:10]  ¹ tn Heb “discipline.” The term refers to instruction that trains with discipline (e.g., Prov 1:2).

[8:10]  ² tn Heb “and not” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “in preference to.”

[8:11]  ³ tn The verb יִשְׁווּ (yishvu, from שָׁוָה, shavah) can be rendered “are not comparable” or in a potential nuance “cannot be compared” with her.

[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.

[8:13]  ⁷ tn The verb שָׂנֵא (sane’) means “to hate.” In this sentence it functions nominally as the predicate. Fearing the Lord is hating evil.

[8:13]  ⁸ tn Since both גֵּאָה (ge’ah, “pride”) and גָּאוֹן (ga’on, “arrogance; pride”) are both from the same verbal root גָּאָה (ga’ah, “to rise up”), they should here be interpreted as one idea, forming a nominal hendiadys: “arrogant pride.”

[8:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “and a mouth of perverse things.” The word “mouth” is a metonymy of cause for what is said; and the noun תַהְפֻּכוֹת (tahpukhot, “perverse things”) means destructive things (the related verb is used for the overthrowing of Sodom).