Proverbs 8:22

8:22 The Lord created ¹  me as the beginning ²  of his works, ³ 

before his deeds of long ago.

Proverbs 11:5

11:5 The righteousness of the blameless will make straight their way, ⁴ 

but the wicked person will fall by his own wickedness. ⁵ 

Proverbs 14:8

14:8 The wisdom of the shrewd person ⁶  is to discern ⁷  his way,

but the folly of fools is deception. ⁸ 

Proverbs 16:9

16:9 A person ⁹  plans his course, ¹⁰ 

but the Lord directs ¹¹  his steps. ¹² 

Proverbs 16:17

16:17 The highway ¹³  of the upright is to turn ¹⁴  away from evil;

the one who guards ¹⁵  his way safeguards his life. ¹⁶ 

Proverbs 19:3

19:3 A person’s folly ¹⁷  subverts ¹⁸  his way,

and ¹⁹  his heart rages ²⁰  against the Lord.

Proverbs 20:24

20:24 The steps of a person ²¹  are ordained by ²²  the Lord –

so how can anyone ²³  understand his own ²⁴  way?

[8:22]  ¹ tn There are two roots קָנָה (qanah) in Hebrew, one meaning “to possess,” and the other meaning “to create.” The earlier English versions did not know of the second root, but suspected in certain places that a meaning like that was necessary (e.g., Gen 4:1; 14:19; Deut 32:6). Ugaritic confirmed that it was indeed another root. The older versions have the translation “possess” because otherwise it sounds like God lacked wisdom and therefore created it at the beginning. They wanted to avoid saying that wisdom was not eternal. Arius liked the idea of Christ as the wisdom of God and so chose the translation “create.” Athanasius translated it, “constituted me as the head of creation.” The verb occurs twelve times in Proverbs with the meaning of “to acquire”; but the Greek and the Syriac versions have the meaning “create.” Although the idea is that wisdom existed before creation, the parallel ideas in these verses (“appointed,” “given birth”) argue for the translation of “create” or “establish” (R. N. Whybray, “Proverbs 8:22-31 and Its Supposed Prototypes,” VT 15 [1965]: 504-14; and W. A. Irwin, “Where Will Wisdom Be Found?” JBL 80 [1961]: 133-42).

[8:22]  ² tn Verbs of creation often involve double accusatives; here the double accusative involves the person (i.e., wisdom) and an abstract noun in construct (IBHS 174-75 §10.2.3c).

[8:22]  ³ tn Heb “his way” (so KJV, NASB). The word “way” is an idiom (implied comparison) for the actions of God.

[11:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “his way.”

[11:5]  ⁵ sn The righteous will enjoy security and serenity throughout life. Righteousness makes the path straight; wickedness destroys the wicked.

[14:8]  ⁷ tn Or “the prudent [person]” (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV).

[14:8]  ⁸ tn The Hiphil infinitive construct denotes purpose. Those who are shrewd will use it to give careful consideration to all their ways.

[14:8]  ⁹ tn The word means “deception,” but some suggest “self-deception” here (W. McKane, Proverbs [OTL], 466; and D. W. Thomas, “Textual and Philological Notes on Some Passages in the Book of Proverbs,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 286); cf. NLT “fools deceive themselves.” The parallelism would favor this, but there is little support for it. The word usually means “craft practiced on others.” If the line is saying the fool is deceitful, there is only a loose antithesis between the cola.

[16:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the heart of a man.” This stresses that it is within the heart that plans are made. Only those plans that are approved by God will succeed.

[16:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “his way” (so KJV, NASB).

[16:9]  ¹² tn The verb כּוּן (kun, “to establish; to confirm”) with צַעַד (tsa’ad, “step”) means “to direct” (e.g., Ps 119:133; Jer 10:23). This contrasts what people plan and what actually happens – God determines the latter.

[16:9]  ¹³ sn “Steps” is an implied comparison, along with “way,” to indicate the events of the plan as they work out.

[16:17]  ¹³ sn The point of righteous living is made with the image of a highway, a raised and well-graded road (a hypocatastasis, implying a comparison between a highway and the right way of living).

[16:17]  ¹⁴ tn The form סוּר (sur) is a Qal infinitive; it indicates that a purpose of the righteous life is to turn away from evil. “Evil” here has the sense of sinful living. So the first line asserts that the well-cared-for life avoids sin.

[16:17]  ¹⁵ sn The second half of the verse uses two different words for “guard”; this one is נֹצֵר (notser) “the one who guards his way,” and the first is שֹׁמֵר (shomer) “the one who guards his life” (the order of the words is reversed in the translation). The second colon then explains further the first (synthetic parallelism), because to guard one’s way preserves life.

[16:17]  ¹⁶ tc The LXX adds three lines after 17a and one after 17b: “The paths of life turn aside from evils, and the ways of righteousness are length of life; he who receives instruction will be prosperous, and he who regards reproofs will be made wise; he who guards his ways preserves his soul, and he who loves his life will spare his mouth.”

[19:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the folly of a man.”

[19:3]  ¹⁷ tn The verb סָלַף (salaf) normally means “to twist; to pervert; to overturn,” but in this context it means “to subvert” (BDB 701 s.v.); cf. ASV “subverteth.”

[19:3]  ¹⁸ tn The clause begins with vav on the nonverb phrase “against the Lord.” While clause structure and word order is less compelling in a book like Proverbs, this fits well as a circumstantial clause indicating concession.

[19:3]  ¹⁹ sn The “heart raging” is a metonymy of cause (or adjunct); it represents the emotions that will lead to blaming God for the frustration. Genesis 42:28 offers a calmer illustration of this as the brothers ask what God was doing to them.

[20:24]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the steps of a man”; but “man” is the noun גֶּבֶר (gever, in pause), indicating an important, powerful person. BDB 149-50 s.v. suggests it is used of men in their role of defending women and children; if that can be validated, then a translation of “man” would be appropriate here. But the line seems to have a wider, more general application. The “steps” represent (by implied comparison) the course of life (cf. NLT “the road we travel”).

[20:24]  ²⁰ tn Heb “from the Lord”; NRSV “ordered by the Lord”; NIV “directed by the Lord.”

[20:24]  ²¹ tn The verse uses an independent nominative absolute to point up the contrast between the mortal and the immortal: “and man, how can he understand his way?” The verb in the sentence would then be classified as a potential imperfect; and the whole question rhetorical. It is affirming that humans cannot understand very much at all about their lives.

[20:24]  ²² tn Heb “his way.” The referent of the third masculine singular pronoun is unclear, so the word “own” was supplied in the translation to clarify that the referent is the human individual, not the Lord.