Amsal 1:26

1:26 so ¹  I myself will laugh ²  when disaster strikes you, ³ 

I will mock when what you dread ⁴  comes,

Amsal 4:8

4:8 Esteem her highly ⁵  and she will exalt you;

she will honor you if you embrace her.

Amsal 6:29

6:29 So it is with ⁶  the one who has sex with ⁷  his neighbor’s wife;

no one ⁸  who touches ⁹  her will escape ¹⁰  punishment. ¹¹ 

Amsal 8:36

8:36 But the one who does not find me ¹²  brings harm ¹³  to himself; ¹⁴ 

all who hate me ¹⁵  love death.”

Amsal 13:13

13:13 The one who despises instruction ¹⁶  will pay the penalty, ¹⁷ 

but whoever esteems instruction ¹⁸  will ¹⁹  be rewarded. ²⁰ 

Amsal 20:14

20:14 “It’s worthless! It’s worthless!” ²¹  says the buyer, ²² 

but when he goes on his way, he boasts. ²³ 

Amsal 23:6

23:6 Do not eat the food of a stingy person, ²⁴ 

do not crave his delicacies;

Amsal 23:31

23:31 Do not look on the wine when it is red,

when it sparkles ²⁵  in the cup,

when it goes down smoothly. ²⁶ 

Amsal 25:14

25:14 Like cloudy skies and wind that produce no rain, ²⁷ 

so is the one who boasts ²⁸  of a gift not given. ²⁹ 

Amsal 30:6

30:6 Do not add to his words,

lest he reprove you, and prove you to be a liar. ³⁰ 

Amsal 30:14

30:14 There is a generation whose teeth are like ³¹  swords ³² 

and whose molars ³³  are like knives

to devour ³⁴  the poor from the earth

and the needy from among the human race.

Amsal 30:18

30:18 There are three things that are too wonderful for me, ³⁵ 

four that I do not understand:

Amsal 30:24

30:24 There are four things on earth that are small, ³⁶ 

but they are exceedingly wise: ³⁷ 

[1:26]  ¹ tn The conclusion or apodosis is now introduced.

[1:26]  ² sn Laughing at the consequences of the fool’s rejection of wisdom does convey hardness against the fool; it reveals the folly of rejecting wisdom (e.g., Ps 2:4). It vindicates wisdom and the appropriateness of the disaster (D. Kidner, Proverbs [TOTC], 60).

[1:26]  ³ tn Heb “at your disaster.” The 2nd person masculine singular suffix is either (1) a genitive of worth: “the disaster due you” or (2) an objective genitive: “disaster strikes you.” The term “disaster” (אֵיד, ’ed) often refers to final life-ending calamity (Prov 6:15; 24:22; BDB 15 s.v. 3). The preposition ב (bet) focuses upon time here.

[1:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “your dread” (so NASB); KJV “your fear”; NRSV “panic.” The 2nd person masculine singular suffix is a subjective genitive: “that which you dread.”

[4:8]  ⁵ tn The verb is the Pilpel imperative from סָלַל (salal, “to lift up; to cast up”). So the imperative means “exalt her; esteem her highly; prize her.”

[6:29]  ⁶ tn Heb “thus is the one.”

[6:29]  ⁷ tn Heb “who goes in to” (so NAB, NASB). The Hebrew verb בּוֹא (bo’, “to go in; to enter”) is used throughout scripture as a euphemism for the act of sexual intercourse. Cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT “who sleeps with”; NCV “have sexual relations with.”

[6:29]  ⁸ tn Heb “anyone who touches her will not.”

[6:29]  ⁹ sn The verb “touches” is intended here to be a euphemism for illegal sexual contact (e.g., Gen 20:6).

[6:29]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “will be exempt from”; NASB, NLT “will not go unpunished.”

[6:29]  ¹¹ tn The verb is יִנָּקֶה (yinnaqeh), the Niphal imperfect from נָקָה (naqah, “to be empty; to be clean”). From it we get the adjectives “clean,” “free from guilt,” “innocent.” The Niphal has the meanings (1) “to be cleaned out” (of a plundered city; e.g., Isa 3:26), (2) “to be clean; to be free from guilt; to be innocent” (Ps 19:14), (3) “to be free; to be exempt from punishment” [here], and (4) “to be free; to be exempt from obligation” (Gen 24:8).

[8:36]  ¹² tn Heb “the one sinning [against] me.” The verb חָטָא (khata’, “to sin”) forms a contrast with “find” in the previous verse, and so has its basic meaning of “failing to find, miss.” So it is talking about the one who misses wisdom, as opposed to the one who finds it.

[8:36]  ¹³ tn The Qal active participle functions verbally here. The word stresses both social and physical harm and violence.

[8:36]  sn Brings harm. Whoever tries to live without wisdom is inviting all kinds of disaster into his life.

[8:36]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “his soul.”

[8:36]  ¹⁵ tn The basic idea of the verb שָׂנֵא (sane’, “to hate”) is that of rejection. Its antonym is also used in the line, “love,” which has the idea of choosing. So not choosing (i.e., hating) wisdom amounts to choosing (i.e., loving) death.

[13:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the word.” The term “word” means teaching in general; its parallel “command” indicates that it is the more forceful instruction that is meant. Both of these terms are used for scripture.

[13:13]  ¹⁷ tc The MT reads יֵחָבֶל (yekhavel, “he will pay [for it]”; cf. NAB, NIV) but the BHS editors suggest revocalizing the text to יְחֻבָּל (yÿkhubal, “he will be broken [for it]”; cf. NRSV “bring destruction on themselves”).

[13:13]  tn Heb “will be pledged to it.” The Niphal of I חָבַל (khaval) “to pledge” means “to be under pledge to pay the penalty” (BDB 286 s.v. Niph). Whoever despises teaching will be treated as a debtor – he will pay for it if he offends against the law.

[13:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “fears a commandment”; NIV “respects a command.”

[13:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he” or “that one” [will be rewarded].

[13:13]  ²⁰ tc The LXX adds: “A crafty son will have no good thing, but the affairs of a wise servant will be prosperous; and his path will be directed rightly.”

[20:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “[It is] bad, [it is] bad.” Since “bad” can be understood in some modern contexts as a descriptive adjective meaning “good,” the translation uses “worthless” instead – the real point of the prospective buyer’s exclamation.

[20:14]  ²² sn This proverb reflects standard procedure in the business world. When negotiating the transaction the buyer complains how bad the deal is for him, or how worthless the prospective purchase, but then later brags about what a good deal he got. The proverb will alert the inexperienced as to how things are done.

[20:14]  ²³ tn The Hitpael imperfect of הָלַל (halal) means “to praise” – to talk in glowing terms, excitedly. In this stem it means “to praise oneself; to boast.”

[23:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “an evil eye.” This is the opposite of the “good eye” which meant the generous man. The “evil eye” refers to a person who is out to get everything for himself (cf. NASB, NCV, CEV “selfish”). He is ill-mannered and inhospitable (e.g., Prov 28:22). He is up to no good – even though he may appear to be a host.

[23:31]  ²⁵ tn Heb “its eye gives.” With CEV’s “bubbling up in the glass” one might think champagne was in view.

[23:31]  ²⁶ tn The expression is difficult, and is suspected of having been added from Song 7:10, although the parallel is not exact. The verb is the Hitpael imperfect of הָלַךְ (halakh); and the prepositional phrase uses the word “upright; equity; pleasing,” from יָשָׁר (yashar). KJV has “when it moveth itself aright”; much more helpful is ASV: “when it goeth down smoothly.” Most recent English versions are similar to ASV. The phrase obviously refers to the pleasing nature of wine.

[25:14]  ²⁷ sn The emblem now is one of clouds and winds that would be expected to produce rain; they gain attention and raise people’s expectations but prove to be disappointing when no rain is forthcoming, and hence could be thought of as deceitful.

[25:14]  ²⁸ tn The form מִתְהַלֵּל (mithallel) is the Hitpael participle of the well-known word for “praise”; but in this stem it means “to praise oneself” or “to boast.” The description of “windbag” seems appropriate in this context.

[25:14]  ²⁹ tn Heb “a gift of falsehood.” This would mean that the individual brags about giving a gift, when there is no gift.

[30:6]  ³⁰ tn The form of the verb is a Niphal perfect tense with a vav consecutive from the root כָּזַב (kazav, “to lie”). In this stem it has the ideas of “been made deceptive,” or “shown to be false” or “proved to be a liar.” One who adds to or changes the word of the Lord will be seen as a liar.

[30:14]  ³¹ tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[30:14]  ³² sn There are two figures used in each of these lines: teeth/great teeth and “swords/knives.” The term “teeth” is a metonymy for the process of chewing and eating. This goes with the figure of the second half of the verse that speaks about “devouring” the poor – so the whole image of eating and chewing refers to destroying the poor (an implied comparison). The figures of “swords/knives” are metaphors within this image. Comparing teeth to swords means that they are sharp and powerful. The imagery captures the rapacity of their power.

[30:14]  ³³ tn Heb “teeth” (so NRSV) or “jaw teeth” (so KJV, ASV, NASB) or perhaps “jawbone.” This is a different Hebrew word for “teeth” than the one in the previous line; if it refers to “jaw teeth” then a translation like “molars” would be appropriate, although this image might not fit with the metaphor (“like knives”) unless the other teeth, the incisors or front teeth, are pictured as being even longer (“like swords”).

[30:14]  ³⁴ tn The Hebrew form לֶאֱכֹל (le’ekhol) is the Qal infinitive construct; it indicates the purpose of this generation’s ruthless power – it is destructive. The figure is an implied comparison (known as hypocatastasis) between “devouring” and “destroying.”

[30:18]  ³⁵ tn The form נִפְלְאוּ (niflÿ’u) is the Niphal perfect from פָּלָא (pala’); the verb means “to be wonderful; to be extraordinary; to be surpassing”; cf. NIV “too amazing.” The things mentioned are things that the sage finds incomprehensible (e.g., Gen 18:14; Judg 13:18; Ps 139:6; and Isa 9:6[5]). The sage can only admire these wonders – he is at a loss to explain them.

[30:24]  ³⁶ tn Heb “Four are the small things of the earth.” TEV has “four animals,” though in the list of four that follows, two are insects and one is a reptile.

[30:24]  ³⁷ tn The construction uses the Pual participle with the plural adjective as an intensive; these four creatures are the very embodiment of wisdom (BDB 314 s.v. חָכַם Pu).