Proverbs 9:13-15

9:13 The woman called Folly ¹  is brash, ² 

she is naive ³  and does not know ⁴  anything. ⁵ 

9:14 So she sits at the door of her house,

on a seat at the highest point of the city,

9:15 calling out ⁶  to those who are passing by her ⁷  in the way, ⁸ 

who go straight ⁹  on their way.

[9:13]  ¹ tn Heb “a woman of foolishness.” This could be translated as “foolish woman,” taking the genitive as attributive (cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV). But in view of the contrast with the personification of wisdom, this word probably also represents a personification and so can be taken as a genitive of apposition, the woman who is folly, or “the woman, Folly” (cf. NIV). For clarity and stylistic reasons the word “called” has been supplied in the translation.

[9:13]  ² tn The meaning of the word comes close to “riotous.” W. McKane describes her as restless and rootless (Proverbs [OTL], 366).

[9:13]  ³ tn The noun means “foolishness” (cf. KJV “simple”; NAB “inane”). Here it could be classified as a metonymy of adjunct, or as a predictive apposition (when a substantive is used in place of a noun; see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 15, §67).

[9:13]  ⁴ tn The ignorance here in Proverbs must be moral ignorance. But see D. W. Thomas for the idea that the verb means “become still,” “be at rest,” yielding here the idea of restless (“A Note on בַל־יָדְעָה in Proverbs 9¹³,” JTS 4 [1953]: 23-24).

[9:13]  ⁵ tc The text of v. 13 has been difficult for translators. The MT has, “The foolish woman is boisterous, simplicity, and knows not what.” The LXX reads, “A foolish and impudent woman comes to lack a morsel, she who knows not shame.” The Syriac has, “a woman lacking in discretion, seductive.” Tg. Prov 9:13 translates it, “a foolish woman and a gadabout, ignorant, and she knows not good.” The Vulgate has, “a woman foolish and noisy, and full of wiles, and knowing nothing at all.”

[9:15]  ⁶ tn The infinitive construct “calling out” functions epexegetically in the sentence, explaining how the previous action was accomplished.

[9:15]  ⁷ tn The term “her” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[9:15]  ⁸ tn The noun is a genitive of location after the construct participle. Its parallel word is also an adverbial accusative of location.

[9:15]  ⁹ tn The participle modifies the participle in the first colon. To describe the passers-by in this context as those “who go straight” means that they are quiet and unwary.