Proverbs 9:4

9:4 “Whoever is naive, let him turn in here,”

she says ¹  to those ²  who lack understanding. ³ 

Proverbs 9:7

9:7 Whoever corrects ⁴  a mocker is asking for ⁵  insult; ⁶ 

whoever reproves a wicked person receives ⁷  abuse.

Proverbs 9:16

9:16 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here,”

she says to those who lack understanding. ⁸ 

Proverbs 12:9

12:9 Better is a person of humble standing ⁹  who nevertheless has a servant, ¹⁰ 

than one who pretends to be somebody important ¹¹  yet has no food.

Proverbs 13:3

13:3 The one who guards his words ¹²  guards his life,

but ¹³  whoever is talkative ¹⁴  will come to ruin. ¹⁵ 

Proverbs 13:13

13:13 The one who despises instruction ¹⁶  will pay the penalty, ¹⁷ 

but whoever esteems instruction ¹⁸  will ¹⁹  be rewarded. ²⁰ 

Proverbs 16:26

16:26 A laborer’s ²¹  appetite ²²  works on his behalf, ²³ 

for his hunger ²⁴  urges him to work. ²⁵ 

Proverbs 17:21

17:21 Whoever brings a fool ²⁶  into the world ²⁷  does so ²⁸  to his grief,

and the father of a fool has no joy. ²⁹ 

Proverbs 18:7

18:7 The mouth of a fool is his ruin,

and his lips are a snare for his life. ³⁰ 

Proverbs 18:13

18:13 The one who gives an answer ³¹  before he listens ³²  –

that is his folly and his shame. ³³ 

Proverbs 18:16

18:16 A person’s gift ³⁴  makes room for him,

and leads him ³⁵  before important people.

Proverbs 19:17

19:17 The one who is gracious ³⁶  to the poor lends ³⁷  to the Lord,

and the Lord ³⁸  will repay him ³⁹  for his good deed. ⁴⁰ 

Proverbs 20:14

20:14 “It’s worthless! It’s worthless!” ⁴¹  says the buyer, ⁴² 

but when he goes on his way, he boasts. ⁴³ 

Proverbs 22:16

22:16 The one who oppresses the poor to increase his own gain

and the one who gives to the rich ⁴⁴  – both end up only in poverty.

[9:4]  ¹ tn Heb “lacking of heart she says to him.” The pronominal suffix is a resumptive pronoun, meaning, “she says to the lacking of heart.”

[9:4]  ² tn Heb “him.”

[9:4]  ³ tn Heb “heart”; cf. NIV “to those who lack judgment.”

[9:7]  ⁴ tn The active participle יֹסֵר (yoser) describes one who tries to correct by means of instruction and discipline; it is paralleled by the Hiphil participle which refers to someone who rebukes or reproves another. Anyone trying this on these types of people would be inviting trouble.

[9:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “receives for himself.”

[9:7]  ⁶ tn The word means “dishonor” or “disgrace.” It is paralleled with מוּמוֹ (mumo), translated “abuse.” The latter term means “blemish,” although some would emend the text to read “reproach.” The MT is figurative but not impossible to interpret: Whoever tries to rebuke a wicked person will receive only insults and perhaps physical attack.

[9:7]  ⁷ tn The verb “receives” is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[9:16]  ⁷ tn This expression is almost identical to v. 4, with the exception of the addition of conjunctions in the second colon: “and the lacking of understanding and she says to him.” The parallel is deliberate, of course, showing the competing appeals for those passing by.

[12:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “one who is lightly regarded.” The verb קָלָה (qalah) means “to be lightly esteemed; to be dishonored; to be degraded” (BDB 885 s.v.).

[12:9]  ¹¹ tn The meaning of the phrase וְעֶבֶד לוֹ (vÿ’eved lo) is ambiguous; the preposition is either possessive (“has a servant”) or a reflexive indirect object (“is a servant for himself”; cf. NAB, TEV). Several versions (LXX, Vulgate, Syriac) read “and yet has a servant.”

[12:9]  ¹² tn Heb “who feigns importance.” The term מְתַכַּבֵּד (mÿtakkabed, from כָּבֵד, caved, “to be weighty; to be honored; to be important”) is an example of the so-called “Hollywood” Hitpael which describes a person putting on an act (BDB 458 s.v. כָּבֵד Hitp.2).

[13:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “mouth” (so KJV, NAB). The term פֶּה (peh, “mouth”) functions as a metonymy of cause for speech.

[13:3]  ¹⁴ tn The term “but” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[13:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “opens wide his lips.” This is an idiom meaning “to be talkative” (BDB 832 s.v. פָּשַׂק Qal). Cf. NIV “speaks rashly”; TEV “a careless talker”; CEV “talk too much.”

[13:3]  ¹⁶ sn Tight control over what one says prevents trouble (e.g., Prov 10:10; 17:28; Jas 3:1-12; Sir 28:25). Amenemope advises to “sleep a night before speaking” (5:15; ANET 422, n. 10). The old Arab proverb is appropriate: “Take heed that your tongue does not cut your throat” (O. Zockler, Proverbs, 134).

[13:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the word.” The term “word” means teaching in general; its parallel “command” indicates that it is the more forceful instruction that is meant. Both of these terms are used for scripture.

[13:13]  ¹⁷ tc The MT reads יֵחָבֶל (yekhavel, “he will pay [for it]”; cf. NAB, NIV) but the BHS editors suggest revocalizing the text to יְחֻבָּל (yÿkhubal, “he will be broken [for it]”; cf. NRSV “bring destruction on themselves”).

[13:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “fears a commandment”; NIV “respects a command.”

[13:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he” or “that one” [will be rewarded].

[13:13]  ²⁰ tc The LXX adds: “A crafty son will have no good thing, but the affairs of a wise servant will be prosperous; and his path will be directed rightly.”

[16:26]  ¹⁹ sn The word for “laborer” and “labors” emphasizes the drudgery and the agony of work (עָמַל, ’amal). For such boring drudgery motivations are necessary for its continuance, and hunger is the most effective. The line is saying that the appetites are working as hard as the laborer.

[16:26]  ²⁰ tn Heb “soul.” The term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) here means “appetite,” functioning as a metonymy; the “inner soul” of a person representing his appetite (BDB 660 s.v. 5a; see, e.g., Pss 63:6; 107:9; Prov 13:25; 16:24; 27:7; Isa 56:11; 58:10; Jer 50:19; Ezek 7:19). This is suggested by the parallelism with “hunger.”

[16:26]  ²¹ tn Heb “labors for him” (so NAB).

[16:26]  ²² tn Heb “his mouth” (so KJV, NAB). The term “mouth” is a metonymy for hunger or eating. The idea of the proverb is clear – the need to eat drives people to work.

[16:26]  ²³ tc The LXX has apparently misread פִּיהוּ (pihu) and inserted the idea of “ruin” for the laborer: “he drives away ruin.” This influenced the Syriac to some degree; however, its first clause understood “suffering” instead of “labor”: “the person who causes suffering suffers.”

[17:21]  ²² sn Here the Hebrew terms כְּסִיל (kÿsil) and נָבָל (naval) are paired. The first one, which occurs about fifty times in the book, refers to a dullard, whether it be in spiritual, intellectual, or moral matters. The second word, rare in the book, primarily focuses on religious folly – it refers to the practical atheist, the one who lives as if there is no God.

[17:21]  ²³ tn The form simply means “bears” or “gives birth to,” but since it is masculine it could be rendered “fathers” (cf. NASB “he who begets a fool”; NIV “To have a fool for a son”). The form for “fool” is masculine, but the proverb is not limited only to male children (cf. NCV “It is sad to have a foolish child”).

[17:21]  ²⁴ tn The phrase “does so” is supplied for the sake of clarification.

[17:21]  ²⁵ sn Parents of fools, who had hoped for children who would be a credit to the family, find only bitter disappointment (cf. TEV “nothing but sadness and sorrow”).

[18:7]  ²⁵ tn Heb “his soul” (so KJV, NASB, NIV).

[18:13]  ²⁸ tn Heb “returns a word”; KJV “He that answereth a matter.”

[18:13]  ²⁹ sn Poor listening and premature answering indicate that the person has a low regard for what the other is saying, or that he is too absorbed in his own ideas. The Mishnah lists this as the second characteristic of the uncultured person (m. Avot 5:7).

[18:13]  ³⁰ tn Heb “it is folly to him and shame.” The verse uses formal parallelism, with the second colon simply completing the thought of the first.

[18:16]  ³¹ sn The Hebrew term translated “gift” is a more general term than “bribe” (שֹׁחַד, shokhad), used in 17:8, 23. But it also has danger (e.g., 15:27; 21:14), for by giving gifts one might learn how influential they are and use them for bribes. The proverb simply states that a gift can expedite matters.

[18:16]  ³² sn The two verbs here show a progression, helping to form the synthetic parallelism. The gift first “makes room” (יַרְחִיב, yarkhiv) for the person, that is, extending a place for him, and then “ushers him in” (יַנְחֵנּוּ, yakhenu) among the greats.

[19:17]  ³⁴ sn The participle חוֹנֵן (khonen, “shows favor to”) is related to the word for “grace.” The activity here is the kind favor shown poor people for no particular reason and with no hope of repayment. It is literally an act of grace.

[19:17]  ³⁵ tn The form מַלְוֵה (malveh) is the Hiphil participle from לָוָה (lavah) in construct; it means “to cause to borrow; to lend.” The expression here is “lender of the Lord.” The person who helps the poor becomes the creditor of God.

[19:17]  ³⁶ tn Heb “he.” The referent of the 3rd person masculine singular pronoun is “the Lord” in the preceding line, which has been supplied here in the translation for clarity.

[19:17]  ³⁷ sn The promise of reward does not necessarily mean that the person who gives to the poor will get money back; the rewards in the book of Proverbs involve life and prosperity in general.

[19:17]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and his good deed will repay him.” The word גְּמֻלוֹ (gÿmulo) could be (1) the subject or (2) part of a double accusative of the verb. Understanding it as part of the double accusative makes better sense, for then the subject of the verb is God. How “his deed” could repay him is not immediately obvious.

[20:14]  ³⁷ tn Heb “[It is] bad, [it is] bad.” Since “bad” can be understood in some modern contexts as a descriptive adjective meaning “good,” the translation uses “worthless” instead – the real point of the prospective buyer’s exclamation.

[20:14]  ³⁸ sn This proverb reflects standard procedure in the business world. When negotiating the transaction the buyer complains how bad the deal is for him, or how worthless the prospective purchase, but then later brags about what a good deal he got. The proverb will alert the inexperienced as to how things are done.

[20:14]  ³⁹ tn The Hitpael imperfect of הָלַל (halal) means “to praise” – to talk in glowing terms, excitedly. In this stem it means “to praise oneself; to boast.”

[22:16]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “oppressing the poor, it is gain; giving to the rich, it is loss.” The Hebrew is cryptic, but two sins are mentioned here that will be punished by poverty: extortion and bribery. Perhaps the proverb is simply saying it is easy to oppress the poor for gain, but it is a waste of money to try to buy or bribe a patron (D. Kidner, Proverbs [TOTC], 149).