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Proverbs 8:4-5

Context

8:4 “To you, O people, 1  I call out,

and my voice calls 2  to all mankind. 3 

8:5 You who are naive, discern 4  wisdom!

And you fools, understand discernment! 5 

Proverbs 8:26-32

Context

8:26 before he made the earth and its fields, 6 

or the beginning 7  of the dust of the world.

8:27 When he established the heavens, I was there;

when he marked out the horizon 8  over the face of the deep,

8:28 when he established the clouds above,

when the fountains of the deep grew strong, 9 

8:29 when he gave the sea his decree

that the waters should not pass over his command, 10 

when he marked out the foundations of the earth,

8:30 then I was 11  beside him as a master craftsman, 12 

and I was his delight 13  day by day,

rejoicing before him at all times,

8:31 rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, 14 

and delighting 15  in its people. 16 

8:32 “So now, children, 17  listen to me;

blessed are those who keep my ways.

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[8:4]  1 tn Heb “men.” Although it might be argued in light of the preceding material that males would be particularly addressed by wisdom here, the following material indicates a more universal appeal. Cf. TEV, NLT “to all of you.”

[8:4]  2 tn The verb “calls” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of style.

[8:4]  3 tn Heb “sons of man.” Cf. NAB “the children of men”; NCV, NLT “all people”; NRSV “all that live.”

[8:5]  4 tn The imperative of בִּין (bin) means “to understand; to discern.” The call is for the simple to understand what wisdom is, not just to gain it.

[8:5]  5 tn Heb “heart.” The noun לֵב (lev, “heart”) often functions metonymically for wisdom, understanding, discernment.

[8:26]  6 tn Heb “open places.”

[8:26]  7 tn Here רֹאשׁ (rosh) means “beginning” with reference to time (BDB 911 s.v. 4.b).

[8:27]  8 sn The infinitive construct בְּחוּקוֹ (bÿkhuqo, “to cut; to engrave; to mark”) and the noun חוּג (khug, “horizon; circle”) form a paronomasia in the line.

[8:28]  9 tn To form a better parallel some commentators read this infinitive בַּעֲזוֹז (baazoz), “when [they] grew strong,” as a Piel causative, “when he made firm, fixed fast” (cf. NIV “fixed securely”; NLT “established”). But the following verse (“should not pass over”) implies the meaning “grew strong” here.

[8:29]  10 tn Heb “his mouth.”

[8:30]  11 tn The verb form is a preterite with vav consecutive, although it has not been apocopated. It provides the concluding statement for the temporal clauses as well as the parallel to v. 27.

[8:30]  12 tn Critical to the interpretation of this line is the meaning of אָמוֹן (’amon). Several suggestions have been made: “master craftsman” (cf. ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV), “nursing child” (cf. NCV), “foster father.” R. B. Y. Scott chooses “faithful” – a binding or living link (“Wisdom in Creation: The ‘Amon of Proverbs 8:30,” VT 10 [1960]: 213-23). The image of a child is consistent with the previous figure of being “given birth to” (vv. 24, 25). However, “craftsman” has the most support (LXX, Vulgate, Syriac, Tg. Prov 8:30, Song 7:1; Jer 52:15; also P. W. Skehan, “Structures in Poems on Wisdom: Proverbs 8 and Sirach 24,” CBQ 41 [1979]: 365-79).

[8:30]  13 tn The word is a plural of intensification for “delight”; it describes wisdom as the object of delight. The LXX has the suffix; the Hebrew does not.

[8:31]  14 tn The two words are synonymous in general and so could be taken to express a superlative idea – the “whole world” (cf. NIV, NCV). But תֵּבֵל (tevel) also means the inhabited world, and so the construct may be interpreted as a partitive genitive.

[8:31]  15 tn Heb “and my delights” [were] with/in.”

[8:31]  16 tn Heb “the sons of man.”

[8:32]  17 tn Heb “sons.”



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