Proverbs 9:8-9

9:8 Do not reprove ¹  a mocker or ²  he will hate you;

reprove a wise person and he will love you.

9:9 Give instruction ³  to a wise person, ⁴  and he will become wiser still;

teach ⁵  a righteous person and he will add to his ⁶  learning.

Proverbs 13:1

13:1 A wise son accepts ⁷  his father’s discipline, ⁸ 

but a scoffer ⁹  does not listen to rebuke.

Proverbs 15:5

15:5 A fool rejects his father’s discipline,

but whoever heeds reproof shows good sense. ¹⁰ 

Proverbs 19:25

19:25 Flog ¹¹  a scorner, and as a result the simpleton ¹²  will learn prudence; ¹³ 

correct a discerning person, and as a result he will understand knowledge. ¹⁴ 

Proverbs 27:22

27:22 If you should pound ¹⁵  the fool in the mortar

among the grain ¹⁶  with the pestle,

his foolishness would not depart from him. ¹⁷ 

Proverbs 29:19

29:19 A servant ¹⁸  cannot be corrected ¹⁹  by words,

for although ²⁰  he understands, there is no answer. ²¹ 

Psalms 141:5

141:5 May the godly strike me in love and correct me!

May my head not refuse ²²  choice oil! ²³ 

Indeed, my prayer is a witness against their evil deeds. ²⁴ 

Revelation 3:19

3:19 All those ²⁵  I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent!

[9:8]  ¹ tn In view of the expected response for reproof, the text now uses a negated jussive to advise against the attempt. This is paralleled antithetically by the imperative in the second colon. This imperative is in an understood conditional clause: “if you reprove a wise person.”

[9:8]  ² tn Heb “lest he hate you.” The particle פֶּן (pen, “lest”) expresses fear or precaution (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 79, §476). The antonyms “love” and “hate” suggest that the latter means “reject” and the former means “choosing and embracing.”

[9:9]  ³ tn The noun “instruction” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation.

[9:9]  ⁴ sn The parallelism shows what Proverbs will repeatedly stress, that the wise person is the righteous person.

[9:9]  ⁵ tn The Hiphil verb normally means “to cause to know, make known”; but here the context suggests “to teach” (so many English versions).

[9:9]  ⁶ tn The term “his” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for the sake of smoothness and clarity.

[13:1]  ⁷ tn The term “accepts” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness and clarity.

[13:1]  ⁸ tc G. R. Driver suggested reading this word as מְיֻסַּר (mÿyussar, “allows himself to be disciplined”); see his “Hebrew Notes on Prophets and Proverbs,” JTS 41 (1940): 174. But this is not necessary at all; the MT makes good sense as it stands. Similarly, the LXX has “a wise son listens to his father.”

[13:1]  ⁹ sn The “scoffer” is the worst kind of fool. He has no respect for authority, reviles worship of God, and is unteachable because he thinks he knows it all. The change to a stronger word in the second colon – “rebuke” (גָּעַר, ga’ar) – shows that he does not respond to instruction on any level. Cf. NLT “a young mocker,” taking this to refer to the opposite of the “wise son” in the first colon.

[15:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “is prudent” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NCV, NLT “is wise.” Anyone who accepts correction or rebuke will become prudent in life.

[19:25]  ¹¹ tn The Hiphil imperfect תַּכֶּה (takeh) is followed by another imperfect. It could be rendered: “strike a scorner [imperfect of instruction] and a simpleton will become prudent.” But the first of the parallel verbs can also be subordinated to the second as a temporal or conditional clause. Some English versions translate “beat” (NAB “if you beat an arrogant man”), but this could be understood to refer to competition rather than physical punishment. Therefore “flog” has been used in the translation, since it is normally associated with punishment or discipline.

[19:25]  ¹² sn Different people learn differently. There are three types of people in this proverb: the scorner with a closed mind, the simpleton with an empty mind, and the discerning person with an open mind (D. Kidner, Proverbs [TOTC], 135). The simpleton learns by observing a scoffer being punished, even though the punishment will have no effect on the scoffer.

[19:25]  ¹³ sn The word is related to “shrewdness” (cf. 1:4). The simpleton will learn at least where the traps are and how to avoid them.

[19:25]  ¹⁴ tn The second half begins with הוֹכִיחַ (hokhiakh), the Hiphil infinitive construct. This parallels the imperfect tense beginning the first half; it forms a temporal or conditional clause as well, so that the main verb is “he will understand.”

[27:22]  ¹⁵ tn The verb means “to pound” in a mortar with a pestle (cf. NRSV “Crush”; NLT “grind”). The imperfect is in a conditional clause, an unreal, hypothetical condition to make the point.

[27:22]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew term רִיפוֹת (rifot) refers to some kind of grain spread out to dry and then pounded. It may refer to barley groats (coarsely ground barley), but others have suggested the term means “cheeses” (BDB 937 s.v.). Most English versions have “grain” without being more specific; NAB “grits.”

[27:22]  ¹⁷ tn The LXX contains this paraphrase: “If you scourge a fool in the assembly, dishonoring him, you would not remove his folly.” This removes the imagery of mortar and pestle from the verse. Using the analogy of pounding something in a mortar, the proverb is saying even if a fool was pounded or pulverized, meaning severe physical punishment, his folly would not leave him – it is too ingrained in his nature.

[29:19]  ¹⁸ sn Servants could not be corrected by mere words; they had to be treated like children for they were frequently unresponsive. This, of course, would apply to certain kinds of servants. The Greek version translated this as “a stubborn servant.”

[29:19]  ¹⁹ tn The Niphal imperfect here is best rendered as a potential imperfect – “cannot be corrected.” The second line of the verse clarifies that even though the servant understands the words, he does not respond. It will take more.

[29:19]  ²⁰ tn Heb “for he understands, but there is no answer.” The concessive idea (“although”) is taken from the juxtaposition of the two parts.

[29:19]  ²¹ sn To say “there is no answer” means that this servant does not obey – he has to be trained in a different way.

[141:5]  ²² tn The form יָנִי (yaniy) appears to be derived from the verbal root נוּא (nu’). Another option is to emend the form to יְנָא (yÿna’), a Piel from נָאָה (na’ah), and translate “may choice oil not adorn my head” (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 271). In this case, choice oil, like delicacies in v. 4, symbolize the pleasures of sin.

[141:5]  ²³ sn May my head not refuse choice oil. The psalmist compares the constructive criticism of the godly (see the previous line) to having refreshing olive oil poured over one’s head.

[141:5]  ²⁴ tc Heb “for still, and my prayer [is] against their evil deeds.” The syntax of the Hebrew text is difficult; the sequence -כִּי־עוֹד וּ (kiy-’od u-, “for still and”) occurs only here. The translation assumes an emendation to כִּי עֵד תְפלָּתִי (“indeed a witness [is] my prayer”). The psalmist’s lament about the evil actions of sinful men (see v. 4) testifies against the wicked in the divine court.

[3:19]  ²⁵ tn The Greek pronoun ὅσος (Josos) means “as many as” and can be translated “All those” or “Everyone.”