Amsal 7:9

7:9 in the twilight, the evening, ¹ 

in the dark of the night. ² 

Amsal 8:3

8:3 beside the gates opening into ³  the city,

at the entrance of the doorways she cries out: ⁴ 

Amsal 14:7

14:7 Leave the presence of a foolish person, ⁵ 

or ⁶  you will not understand ⁷  wise counsel. ⁸ 

Amsal 16:15

16:15 In the light of the king’s face ⁹  there is life,

and his favor is like the clouds ¹⁰  of the spring rain. ¹¹ 

Amsal 18:3

18:3 When a wicked person ¹²  arrives, contempt ¹³  shows up with him,

and with shame comes ¹⁴  a reproach.

[7:9]  ¹ tn Heb “in the evening of the day.”

[7:9]  ² tn Heb “in the middle of the night, and dark”; KJV “in the black and dark night”; NRSV “at the time of night and darkness.”

[8:3]  ³ tn Heb “at the mouth of.”

[8:3]  ⁴ tn The cry is a very loud ringing cry that could not be missed. The term רָנַן (ranan) means “to give a ringing cry.” It is often only a shrill sound that might come with a victory in battle, but its use in the psalms for praise shows that it also can have clear verbal content, as it does here. For wisdom to stand in the street and give such a ringing cry would mean that it could be heard by all. It was a proclamation.

[14:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “a man, a stupid fellow.”

[14:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “and.” The vav (ו) that introduces this clause may be understood as meaning “or….”

[14:7]  ⁷ tc The MT reads וּבַל־יָדַעְתָּ (uval-yada’ta, “you did not know [the lips of knowledge]).” It must mean that one should leave the fool because he did not receive knowledge from what fools said. Tg. Prov 14:7 freely interprets the verse: “for there is no knowledge on his lips.” The LXX reflects a Hebrew Vorlage of וּכְלֵי־דַעַת (ukhÿle-da’at, “[wise lips] are weapons of discretion”). The textual variant involves wrong word division and orthographic confusion between ב (bet) and כ (kaf). C. H. Toy emends the text: “for his lips do not utter knowledge” as in 15:7 (Proverbs [ICC], 285). The MT is workable and more difficult.

[14:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “lips of knowledge” (so KJV, ASV). “Lips” is the metonymy of cause, and “knowledge” is an objective genitive (speaking knowledge) or attributive genitive (knowledgeable speech): “wise counsel.”

[16:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “the light of the face of the king.” This expression is a way of describing the king’s brightened face, his delight in what is taking place. This would mean life for those around him.

[16:15]  sn The proverb is the antithesis of 16:14.

[16:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “cloud.”

[16:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “latter rain” (so KJV, ASV). The favor that this expression represents is now compared to the cloud of rain that comes with the “latter” rain or harvest rain. The point is that the rain cloud was necessary for the successful harvest; likewise the king’s pleasure will ensure the success and the productivity of the people under him. E.g., also Psalm 72:15-17; the prosperity of the land is portrayed as a blessing on account of the ideal king.

[18:3]  ¹² tc The MT has “a wicked [person].” Many commentators emend the text to רֶשַׁע (resha’, “wickedness”) which makes better parallelism with “shame” (W. McKane, Proverbs [OTL], 521; R. B. Y. Scott, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes [AB], 112; C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 355; cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV). However, there is no external evidence for this emendation.

[18:3]  ¹³ sn “Contempt” (בּוּז, buz) accompanies the wicked; “reproach” (חֶרְפָּה, kherpah) goes with shame. This reproach refers to the critical rebukes and taunts of the community against a wicked person.

[18:3]  ¹⁴ tn The term “comes” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.