Amsal 8:10-13

8:10 Receive my instruction ¹  rather than ²  silver,

and knowledge rather than choice gold.

8:11 For wisdom is better than rubies,

and desirable things cannot be compared ³  to her.

8:12 “I, wisdom, live with prudence, ⁴ 

and I find ⁵  knowledge and discretion.

8:13 The fear of the Lord is to hate ⁶  evil;

I hate arrogant pride ⁷  and the evil way

and perverse utterances. ⁸ 

[8:10]  ¹ tn Heb “discipline.” The term refers to instruction that trains with discipline (e.g., Prov 1:2).

[8:10]  ² tn Heb “and not” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “in preference to.”

[8:11]  ³ tn The verb יִשְׁווּ (yishvu, from שָׁוָה, shavah) can be rendered “are not comparable” or in a potential nuance “cannot be compared” with her.

[8:12]  ⁴ tn The noun is “shrewdness,” i.e., the right use of knowledge in special cases (see also the discussion in 1:4); cf. NLT “good judgment.” The word in this sentence is an adverbial accusative of specification.

[8:12]  ⁵ tn This verb form is an imperfect, whereas the verb in the first colon was a perfect tense. The perfect should be classified as a gnomic perfect, and this form a habitual imperfect, because both verbs describe the nature of wisdom.

[8:13]  ⁶ tn The verb שָׂנֵא (sane’) means “to hate.” In this sentence it functions nominally as the predicate. Fearing the Lord is hating evil.

[8:13]  sn The verb translated “hate” has the basic idea of rejecting something spontaneously. For example, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated” (Mal 1:2b, 3a). It frequently has the idea of disliking or loathing (as English does), but almost always with an additional aspect of rejection. To “hate evil” is not only to dislike it, but to reject it and have nothing to do with it.

[8:13]  ⁷ tn Since both גֵּאָה (ge’ah, “pride”) and גָּאוֹן (ga’on, “arrogance; pride”) are both from the same verbal root גָּאָה (ga’ah, “to rise up”), they should here be interpreted as one idea, forming a nominal hendiadys: “arrogant pride.”

[8:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “and a mouth of perverse things.” The word “mouth” is a metonymy of cause for what is said; and the noun תַהְפֻּכוֹת (tahpukhot, “perverse things”) means destructive things (the related verb is used for the overthrowing of Sodom).