Amsal 5:12-14

5:12 And you will say, “How I hated discipline!

My heart spurned reproof!

5:13 For ¹  I did not obey my teachers ² 

and I did not heed ³  my instructors. ⁴ 

5:14 I almost ⁵  came to complete ruin ⁶ 

in the midst of the whole congregation!” ⁷ 

[5:13]  ¹ tn The vav that introduces this clause functions in an explanatory sense.

[5:13]  ² tn The Hebrew term מוֹרַי (moray) is the nominal form based on the Hiphil plural participle with a suffix, from the root יָרָה (yarah). The verb is “to teach,” the common noun is “instruction, law [torah],” and this participle form is teacher (“my teachers”).

[5:13]  ³ sn The idioms are vivid: This expression is “incline the ear”; earlier in the first line is “listen to the voice,” meaning “obey.” Such detailed description emphasizes the importance of the material.

[5:13]  ⁴ tn The form is the Piel plural participle of לָמַד (lamad) used substantivally.

[5:14]  ⁵ tn The expression כִּמְעַט (kim’at) is “like a little.” It means “almost,” and is used of unrealized action (BDB 590 s.v. 2). Cf. NCV “I came close to”; NLT “I have come to the brink of.”

[5:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “I was in all evil” (cf. KJV, ASV).

[5:14]  ⁷ tn The text uses the two words “congregation and assembly” to form a hendiadys, meaning the entire assembly.