Amsal 19:1
Konteks19:1 Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity 1
than one who is perverse in his speech 2 and is a fool. 3
Amsal 19:5
Konteks19:5 A false witness 4 will not go unpunished,
and the one who spouts out 5 lies will not escape punishment. 6
Amsal 19:9
Konteks19:9 A false witness will not go unpunished,
[19:1] 1 sn People should follow honesty even if it leads to poverty (e.g., Prov 18:23; 19:22).
[19:1] 2 tn Heb “lips.” The term “lips” is a metonymy for what one says with his lips. The expression “perverse in his lips” refers to speech that is morally perverted. Some medieval Hebrew
[19:1] 3 tc The Syriac and Tg. Prov 19:1 read “rich” instead of MT “fool.” This makes tighter antithetical parallelism than MT and is followed by NAB. However, the MT makes sense as it stands; this is an example of metonymical parallelism. The MT reading is also supported by the LXX. The Hebrew construction uses וְהוּא (vÿhu’), “and he [is],” before “fool.” This may be rendered “one who is perverse while a fool” or “a fool at the same time.”
[19:5] 4 tn Heb “a witness of lies.” This expression is an attributive genitive: “a lying witness” (cf. CEV “dishonest witnesses”). This is paralleled by “the one who pours out lies.”
[19:5] 5 tn Heb “breathes out”; NAB “utters”; NIV “pours out.”
[19:5] 6 tn Heb “will not escape” (so NAB, NASB); NIV “will not go free.” Here “punishment” is implied, and has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
[19:5] sn This proverb is a general statement, because on occasion there are false witnesses who go unpunished in this life (e.g., Prov 6:19; 14:5, 25; 19:9). The Talmud affirms, “False witnesses are contemptible even to those who hire them” (b. Sanhedrin 29b).
[19:9] 7 tn Heb “breathes out”; NAB “utters”; NIV “pours out.”
[19:9] 8 sn The verse is the same as v. 5, except that the last word changes to the verb “will perish” (cf. NCV “will die”; CEV, NLT “will be destroyed”; TEV “is doomed”).
