Amsal 3:16

3:16 Long life ¹  is in her right hand;

in her left hand are riches and honor.

Amsal 8:18

8:18 Riches and honor are with me,

long-lasting wealth and righteousness.

Amsal 14:23

14:23 In all hard work ²  there is profit,

but merely talking about it ³  only brings ⁴  poverty. ⁵ 

Amsal 21:31

21:31 A horse is prepared for the day of battle,

but the victory is from the Lord. ⁶ 

Amsal 30:28

30:28 a lizard ⁷  you can catch with the hand,

but it gets into the palaces of the king. ⁸ 

Amsal 31:26

31:26 She opens her mouth ⁹  with wisdom,

and loving instruction ¹⁰  is on her tongue.

[3:16]  ¹ tn Heb “length of days” (so KJV, ASV).

[14:23]  ² sn The Hebrew term עֶצֶב (’etsev, “painful toil; labor”) is first used in scripture in Gen 3:19 to describe the effects of the Fall. The point here is that people should be more afraid of idle talk than of hard labor.

[14:23]  ³ tn Heb “word of lips.” This construct phrase features a genitive of source (“a word from the lips”) or a subjective genitive (“speaking a word”). Talk without work (which produces nothing) is contrasted with labor that produces something.

[14:23]  ⁴ tn The term “brings” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for clarity and smoothness.

[14:23]  ⁵ sn The noun מַחְסוֹר (makhsor, “need; thing needed; poverty”) comes from the verb “to lack; to be lacking; to decrease; to need.” A person given to idle talk rather than industrious work will have needs that go unmet.

[21:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “of the Lord.” The victory being “of the Lord” means that it is accomplished by him. Ultimate success comes from the Lord and not from human efforts. The faithful have acknowledged this down through the ages, even though they have been responsible and have prepared for the wars. Without this belief there would have been no prayer on the eve of battle (e.g., Ps 20:7 and 33:17).

[30:28]  ⁷ tn The KJV, agreeing with Tg. Prov 30:28, translated this term as “spider.” But almost all modern English versions and commentators, following the Greek and the Latin versions, have “lizard.”

[30:28]  sn The point of this saying is that a weak creature like a lizard, that is so easily caught, cannot be prevented from getting into the most significant places.

[30:28]  ⁸ tn Although the Hebrew noun translated “king” is singular here, it is traditionally translated as plural: “kings’ palaces” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[31:26]  ⁹ tn The first word of the seventeenth line begins with פּ (pe), the seventeenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[31:26]  sn The words “mouth” (“opens her mouth”) and “tongue” (“on her tongue”) here are also metonymies of cause, referring to her speaking.

[31:26]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew phrase תּוֹרַת־חֶסֶד (torat-khesed) is open to different interpretations. (1) The word “law” could here refer to “teaching” as it does frequently in the book of Proverbs, and the word “love,” which means “loyal, covenant love,” could have the emphasis on faithfulness, yielding the idea of “faithful teaching” to parallel “wisdom” (cf. NIV). (2) The word “love” should probably have more of the emphasis on its basic meaning of “loyal love, lovingkindness.” It also would be an attributive genitive, but its force would be that of “loving instruction” or “teaching with kindness.”