Proverbs 9:13

The woman called Folly ¹  is brash, ²  she is naive ³  and does not know ⁴  anything. ⁵ 

biblegateway Pro 9:13

The woman Folly is loud; she is undisciplined and without knowledge.

biblegateway Pro 9:13

The woman of folly is boisterous, She is naive and knows nothing.

biblegateway Pro 9:13

The woman named Folly is loud and brash. She is ignorant and doesn’t even know it.

biblegateway Pro 9:13

Then there's this other woman, Madame Whore--brazen, empty-headed, frivolous.

SABDAweb Pro 9:13

The foolish woman is full of noise; she has no sense at all.

bibleoremus Pro 9:13

The foolish woman is loud; she is ignorant and knows nothing.

biblegateway Pro 9:13

A foolish woman is clamorous; She is simple, and knows nothing.

biblegateway Pro 9:13

The woman called Folly ¹  is brash, ²  she is naive ³  and does not know ⁴  anything. ⁵ 

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.

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

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).

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).

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.”