Amsal 3:31

3:31 Do not envy a violent man, ¹ 

and do not choose to imitate ²  any of his ways;

Amsal 21:7

21:7 The violence ³  done by the wicked ⁴  will drag them away

because ⁵  they refuse to do what is right. ⁶ 

Amsal 28:3

28:3 A poor person ⁷  who oppresses the weak

is like ⁸  a driving rain without food. ⁹ 

Amsal 31:5

31:5 lest they drink and forget what is decreed,

and remove ¹⁰  from all the poor ¹¹  their legal rights. ¹² 

[3:31]  ¹ tn Heb “a man of violence.” The noun חָמָס (khamas, “violence”) functions as an attributive genitive. The word itself means “violence, wrong” (HALOT 329 s.v.) and refers to physical violence, social injustice, harsh treatment, wild ruthlessness, injurious words, hatred, and general rudeness (BDB 329 s.v.).

[3:31]  ² tn Heb “do not choose.”

[21:7]  ³ tn The “violence” (שֹׁד, shod) drags away the wicked, probably either to do more sin or to their punishment. “Violence” here is either personified, or it is a metonymy of cause, meaning “the outcome of their violence” drags them away.

[21:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “violence of the wicked.” This is a subjective genitive: “violence which the wicked do.”

[21:7]  ⁵ tn The second colon of the verse is the causal clause, explaining why they are dragged away. They are not passive victims of their circumstances or their crimes. They choose to persist in their violence and so it destroys them.

[21:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “they refuse to do justice” (so ASV); NASB “refuse to act with justice.”

[28:3]  ⁷ tc The MT reads “a poor man,” גֶּבֶר רָשׁ (gever rash); cf. KJV, NASB, NLT. The problem is that the poor in the book of Proverbs is not an oppressor and does not have the power to be such. So commentators assume the word is incorrect. By a slight change to רָשָׁע (rasha’) the reading becomes “a wicked ruler” [Heb “a wicked mighty man”]. There is no textual support for this change. The LXX, however, reads, “A courageous man oppresses the poor with impieties.” If “a poor man” is retained, then the oppression would include betrayal – one would expect a poor man to have sympathy for others who are impoverished, but in fact that is not the case. It is a sad commentary on human nature that the truly oppressed people can also be oppressed by other poor people.

[28:3]  ⁸ 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.

[28:3]  ⁹ sn “Food” is a metonymy of effect here. The picture is of the driving rain that should cause crops to grow so that food can be produced – but does not (some English versions assume the crops are destroyed instead, e.g., NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT). The point the proverb is making is that a show of strength may not produce anything except ruin.

[31:5]  ¹⁰ tn The verb means “change,” perhaps expressed in reversing decisions or removing rights.

[31:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “all the children of poverty.” This expression refers to the poor by nature. Cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV “the afflicted”; NIV “oppressed.”

[31:5]  ¹² sn The word is דִּין (din, “judgment”; so KJV). In this passage it refers to the cause or the plea for justice, i.e., the “legal rights.”