Proverbs 15:33

15:33 The fear of the Lord provides wise instruction, ¹ 

and before honor comes humility. ² 

Proverbs 18:12

18:12 Before destruction the heart ³  of a person is proud,

but humility comes ⁴  before honor. ⁵ 

Proverbs 22:4

22:4 The reward ⁶  for humility ⁷  and fearing the Lord ⁸ 

is riches and honor and life.

¹ tn Heb “[is] instruction of wisdom” (KJV and NASB similar). The noun translated “wisdom” is an attributive genitive: “wise instruction.”

² tn Heb “[is] humility” (so KJV). The second clause is a parallel idea in that it stresses how one thing leads to another – humility to honor. Humble submission in faith to the Lord brings wisdom and honor.

³ sn The term “heart” is a metonymy of subject, referring to the seat of the spiritual and intellectual capacities – the mind, the will, the motivations and intentions. Proud ambitions and intentions will lead to a fall.

⁴ tn Heb “[is] before honor”; cf. CEV “humility leads to honor.”

⁵ sn The way to honor is through humility (e.g., Prov 11:2; 15:33; 16:18). The humility and exaltation of Jesus provides the classic example (Phil 2:1-10).

⁵ tn The Hebrew term עֵקֶב (’eqev, “reward”) is related to the term meaning “heel”; it refers to the consequences or the reward that follows (akin to the English expression “on the heels of”).

⁶ tn “Humility” is used here in the religious sense of “piety”; it is appropriately joined with “the fear of the Lord.” Some commentators, however, make “the fear of the Lord” the first in the series of rewards for humility, but that arrangement is less likely here.

⁷ tn Heb “the fear of the Lord.” This is an objective genitive; the Lord is the object of the fear.