Amsal 11:30

11:30 The fruit of the righteous is like ¹  a tree producing life, ² 

and the one who wins souls ³  is wise. ⁴ 

Amsal 13:12

13:12 Hope ⁵  deferred ⁶  makes the heart sick, ⁷ 

but a longing fulfilled ⁸  is like ⁹  a tree of life.

Amsal 15:4

15:4 Speech ¹⁰  that heals ¹¹  is like ¹²  a life-giving tree, ¹³ 

but a perverse tongue ¹⁴  breaks the spirit.

[11:30]  ¹ tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.

[11:30]  ² tn Heb “tree of life” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV). The noun חַיִּים (khayyim, “life”) is genitive of product. What the righteous produce (“fruit”) is like a tree of life – a long and healthy life as well as a life-giving influence and provision for others.

[11:30]  ³ tc The Leningrad Codex mistakenly vocalized ש (sin or shin) as שׂ (sin) instead of שׁ (shin) in the term נְפָשׂוֹת (nefashot) which is vocalized as נְפָשׁוֹת (nefasot, “souls”) in the other medieval Hebrew mss and early printed editions of the Masoretic Text.

[11:30]  ⁴ tc The MT reads חָכָם (khakham, “wise”) and seems to refer to capturing (לָקַח, laqakh; “to lay hold of; to seize; to capture”) people with influential ideas (e.g., 2 Sam 15:6). An alternate textual tradition reads חָמָס (khamas) “violent” (reflected in the LXX and Syriac) and refers to taking away lives: “but the one who takes away lives (= kills people) is violent” (cf. NAB, NRSV, TEV). The textual variant was caused by orthographic confusion of ס (samek) and כ (kaf), and metathesis of מ (mem) between the 2nd and 3rd consonants. If the parallelism is synonymous, the MT reading fits; if the parallelism is antithetical, the alternate tradition fits. See D. C. Snell, “‘Taking Souls’ in Proverbs 11:30,” VT 33 (1083): 362-65.

[13:12]  ⁵ sn The word “hope” (תּוֹחֶלֶת [tokhelet] from יָחַל [yakhal]) also has the implication of a tense if not anxious wait.

[13:12]  ⁶ tn The verb is the Pual participle from מָשַׁךְ (mashakh,“to draw; to drag”).

[13:12]  ⁷ sn Failure in realizing one’s hopes can be depressing or discouraging. People can bear frustration only so long (W. G. Plaut, Proverbs, 153).

[13:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “a desire that comes”; cf. CEV “a wish that comes true.”

[13:12]  ⁹ tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.

[15:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “a tongue.” The term “tongue” is a metonymy of cause for what is produced: speech.

[15:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a tongue of healing.” A healing tongue refers to speech that is therapeutic or soothing. It is a source of vitality.

[15:4]  ¹² tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.

[15:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “tree of life.”

[15:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “perversion in it.” The referent must be the tongue, so this has been supplied in the translation for clarity. A tongue that is twisted, perverse, or deceitful is a way of describing deceitful speech. Such words will crush the spirit (e.g., Isa 65:14).