Proverbs 8:24

8:24 When there were no deep oceans ¹  I was born, ² 

when there were no springs overflowing ³  with water;

Proverbs 17:14

17:14 Starting a quarrel ⁴  is like letting out water; ⁵ 

stop it before strife breaks out! ⁶ 

Proverbs 20:5

20:5 Counsel ⁷  in a person’s heart ⁸  is like ⁹  deep water, ¹⁰ 

but an understanding person ¹¹  draws it out.

Proverbs 27:19

27:19 As in water the face is reflected as a face, ¹² 

so a person’s heart ¹³  reflects the person.

[8:24]  ¹ sn The summary statements just given are now developed in a lengthy treatment of wisdom as the agent of all creation. This verse singles out “watery deeps” (תְּהֹמוֹת, tÿhomot) in its allusion to creation because the word in Genesis signals the condition of the world at the very beginning, and because in the ancient world this was something no one could control. Chaos was not there first – wisdom was.

[8:24]  ² tn The third parallel verb is חוֹלָלְתִּי (kholalti), “I was given birth.” Some (e.g., KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV) translate it “brought forth” – not in the sense of being presented, but in the sense of being “begotten, given birth to.” Here is the strongest support for the translation of קָנָה (qanah) as “created” in v. 22. The verb is not literal; it continues the perspective of the personification.

[8:24]  ³ tn Heb “made heavy.”

[17:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “the beginning of a quarrel”; TEV, CEV “The start of an argument.”

[17:14]  ⁵ tn The verse simply begins with “letting out water.” This phrase is a metaphor, but most English versions have made it a simile (supplying “like” or “as”). R. N. Whybray takes it literally and makes it the subject of the clause: “stealing water starts a quarrel” (Proverbs [CBC], 100). However, the verb more likely means “to let out, set free” and not “to steal,” for which there are clearer words.

[17:14]  ⁶ tn The temporal clause is formed with the prepositional “before,” the infinitive construct, and the following subjective genitive. The verb גָּלַע (gala’) means “to expose; to lay bare,” and in the Hitpael “to disclose oneself; to break out.”

[20:5]  ⁷ sn The noun means “advice, counsel”; it can have the connotation of planning or making decisions. Those with understanding can sort out plans.

[20:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “in the heart of a man”; NRSV “in the human mind.”

[20:5]  ⁹ tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.

[20:5]  ¹⁰ sn The motives or plans of a person are “difficult to fathom”; it takes someone with understanding to discover and surface them (the verb in the last colon continues the figure with the sense of bringing the plans to the surface and sorting them out).

[20:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a man of understanding”; TEV “someone with insight”; NLT “the wise.”

[27:19]  ¹⁰ tn The verse is somewhat cryptic and so has prompted many readings. The first line in the MT has “As water the face to the face.” The simplest and most probable interpretation is that clear water gives a reflection of the face (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). One creative but unconvincing suggestion is that of L. Kopf, who suggests the idea is “water of face” (a construct) and that it means shame or modesty, i.e., a face is not really human without shame, and a man without a heart is not human (“Arabische Etymologien und Parallelen zum Bibelwörterbuch,” VT 9 [1959]: 260-61).

[27:19]  ¹¹ tn The second line has “so the heart of a man to a man” (cf. KJV, ASV). The present translation (along with many English versions) supplies “reflects” as a verb in the second line to emphasize the parallelism.