Proverbs 8:3

8:3 beside the gates opening into ¹  the city,

at the entrance of the doorways she cries out: ² 

Proverbs 12:8

12:8 A person ³  is praised in accordance with ⁴  his wisdom,

but the one who has a twisted mind ⁵  is despised.

Proverbs 27:21

27:21 As the crucible is for silver and the furnace is for gold, ⁶ 

so a person ⁷  is proved ⁸  by the praise he receives. ⁹ 

[8:3]  ¹ tn Heb “at the mouth of.”

[8:3]  ² tn The cry is a very loud ringing cry that could not be missed. The term רָנַן (ranan) means “to give a ringing cry.” It is often only a shrill sound that might come with a victory in battle, but its use in the psalms for praise shows that it also can have clear verbal content, as it does here. For wisdom to stand in the street and give such a ringing cry would mean that it could be heard by all. It was a proclamation.

[12:8]  ³ tn Heb “a man.”

[12:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “to the mouth of.” This idiom means “according to” (BDB 805 s.v. פֶּה 6.b.(b); cf. KJV, NAB, NIV). The point is that praise is proportionate to wisdom.

[12:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “crooked of heart”; cf. NAB, NLT “a warped mind” (NIV similar). The noun לֵב (lev, “heart”) is an attributive genitive. It functions as a metonymy of association for “mind; thoughts” (BDB 524 s.v. 3) and “will; volition” (BDB 524 s.v. 4). He does not perceive things as they are, so he makes all the wrong choices. His thinking is all wrong.

[27:21]  ⁵ sn Once again this proverb uses emblematic parallelism. The crucible and the furnace are used to refine and thus reveal the pure metals. The analogy is that praise will reveal the person because others will examine and evaluate what an individual has done in order to make the public acclamation.

[27:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “and a man,” but the context does not indicate this is limited only to males.

[27:21]  ⁷ tn The verb “is proved” was supplied in the translation in view of the analogy. Many English versions supply “tested” for the same reason.

[27:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “by [the] praise of him.” The pronominal suffix is an objective genitive, meaning “the praise about him” (= “the praise he receives”). Some commentators would take the suffix as a subjective genitive, meaning “the praise he gives”; this would mean people stand revealed by what they praise (D. Kidner, Proverbs [TOTC], 168). That does not seem to work as well with the emblem of the first line which indicates being tested. The LXX adds a couplet: “The heart of the transgressor seeks evil; but the upright heart seeks knowledge.”