Proverbs 9:9

9:9 Give instruction ¹  to a wise person, ²  and he will become wiser still;

teach ³  a righteous person and he will add to his ⁴  learning.

Proverbs 11:24

11:24 One person is generous ⁵  and yet grows more wealthy, ⁶ 

but another withholds more than he should ⁷  and comes to poverty. ⁸ 

Proverbs 31:7

31:7 let them ⁹  drink and forget ¹⁰  their poverty,

and remember their misery no more.

Proverbs 31:15

31:15 She also gets up ¹¹  while it is still night,

and provides food ¹²  for her household and a portion ¹³  to her female servants.

[9:9]  ¹ tn The noun “instruction” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation.

[9:9]  ² sn The parallelism shows what Proverbs will repeatedly stress, that the wise person is the righteous person.

[9:9]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn The term “his” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for the sake of smoothness and clarity.

[11:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “There is one who scatters.” The participle מְפַזֵּר (mÿfazzer, “one who scatters”) refers to charity rather than farming or investments (and is thus a hypocatastasis). Cf. CEV “become rich by being generous”).

[11:24]  ⁶ tn Heb “increases.” The verb means that he grows even more wealthy. This is a paradox: Generosity determines prosperity in God’s economy.

[11:24]  ⁷ tn Heb “more than what is right.” This one is not giving enough, but saving for himself.

[11:24]  ⁸ tn Heb “comes to lack.” The person who withholds will come to the diminishing of his wealth. The verse uses hyperbole to teach that giving to charity does not make anyone poor, and neither does refusal to give ensure prosperity.

[31:7]  ⁹ tn The subjects and suffixes are singular (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB). Most other English versions render this as plural for stylistic reasons, in light of the preceding context.

[31:7]  ¹⁰ tn The king was not to “drink and forget”; the suffering are to “drink and forget.”

[31:15]  ¹³ tn The first word of the sixth line begins with ו (vav), the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[31:15]  ¹⁴ sn The word for “food” is טֶרֶף (teref, “prey”; KJV “meat”), another word that does not normally fit the domestic scene. This word also is used in a similar way in Ps 111:5, which says the Lord gives food. Here it is the noble woman who gives food to her family and servants.

[31:15]  ¹⁵ sn The word חֹק (khoq) probably means “allotted portion of food” as before, but some suggest it means the task that is allotted to the servants, meaning that the wise woman gets up early enough to give out the work assignments (Tg. Prov 31:15, RSV, NRSV, TEV, NLT). That is possible, but seems an unnecessary direction for the line to take. Others, however, simply wish to delete this last colon, leaving two cola and not three, but that is unwarranted.