Amsal 24:13-20

24:13 Eat honey, ¹  my child, for it is good,

and honey from the honeycomb is sweet to your taste.

24:14 Likewise, know ²  that wisdom is sweet ³  to your soul;

if you find it, ⁴  you will have a future, ⁵ 

and your hope will not be cut off.

24:15 Do not lie in wait like the wicked ⁶  against the place where the righteous live;

do not assault ⁷  his home.

24:16 Although ⁸  a righteous person may fall seven times, he gets up again,

but the wicked will be brought down ⁹  by calamity.

24:17 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, ¹⁰ 

and when he stumbles do not let your heart rejoice,

24:18 lest the Lord see it, and be displeased, ¹¹ 

and turn his wrath away from him. ¹² 

24:19 Do not fret because of evil people

or be envious of wicked people,

24:20 for the evil person has no future, ¹³ 

and the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished. ¹⁴ 

[24:13]  ¹ sn The twenty-sixth saying teaches that one should develop wisdom because it has a profitable future. The saying draws on the image of honey; its health-giving properties make a good analogy to wisdom.

[24:14]  ² tn D. W. Thomas argues for a meaning of “seek” in place of “know” (“Notes on Some Passages in the Book of Proverbs,” JTS 38 [1937]: 400-403).

[24:14]  ³ tn The phrase “is sweet” is supplied in the translation as a clarification.

[24:14]  ⁴ tn The term “it” is supplied in the translation.

[24:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “there will be an end.” The word is אַחֲרִית (’akhrit, “after-part, end”). BDB 31 s.v. b says in a passage like this it means “a future,” i.e., a happy close of life, sometimes suggesting the idea of posterity promised to the righteous, often parallel to “hope.”

[24:15]  ⁶ tn The word “wicked” could be taken as a vocative (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, “O wicked man”); but since the next line refers to the wicked this is unlikely. It serves better as an adverbial accusative (“like the wicked”).

[24:15]  ⁷ sn The saying warns that it is futile and self-defeating to mistreat God’s people, for they survive – the wicked do not. The warning is against a deliberate, planned assault on their places of dwelling.

[24:16]  ⁸ tn The clause beginning with כִּי (ki) could be interpreted as causal or conditional; but in view of the significance of the next clause it seems better to take it as a concessive clause (“although”). Its verb then receives a modal nuance of possibility. The apodosis is then “and he rises up,” which could be a participle or a perfect tense; although he may fall, he gets up (or, will get up).

[24:16]  sn The righteous may suffer adversity or misfortune any number of times – seven times here – but they will “rise” for virtue triumphs over evil in the end (R. N. Whybray, Proverbs [CBC], 140).

[24:16]  ⁹ tn The verb could be translated with an English present tense (“are brought down,” so NIV) to express what happens to the wicked in this life; but since the saying warns against being like the wicked, their destruction is more likely directed to the future.

[24:17]  ¹⁰ sn The saying (vv. 17, 18) warns against gloating over the misfortune of one’s enemies. The prohibition is formed with two negated jussives “do not rejoice” and “let not be glad,” the second qualified by “your heart” as the subject, signifying the inner satisfaction of such a defeat.

[24:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and [it is] evil in his eyes.”

[24:18]  ¹² sn The judgment of God should strike a note of fear in the heart of people (e.g., Lev 19:17-18). His judgment is not to be taken lightly, or personalized as a victory. If that were to happen, then the Lord might take pity on the enemies in their calamity, for he champions the downtrodden and defeated. These are probably personal enemies; the imprecatory psalms and the prophetic oracles present a different set of circumstances for the downfall of God’s enemies – even the book of Proverbs says that brings joy to the community.

[24:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “there is no end [i.e., future] for the evil.”

[24:20]  ¹⁴ sn The saying warns against envying the wicked; v. 19 provides the instruction, and v. 20 the motivation. The motivation is that there is no future hope for them – nothing to envy, or as C. H. Toy explains, there will be no good outcome for their lives (Proverbs [ICC], 449). They will die suddenly, as the implied comparison with the lamp being snuffed out signifies.