Amsal 7:26

7:26 for she has brought down ¹  many fatally wounded,

and all those she has slain are many. ² 

Amsal 12:7

12:7 The wicked are overthrown ³  and perish, ⁴ 

but the righteous household ⁵  will stand.

Amsal 17:19

17:19 The one who loves a quarrel loves transgression; ⁶ 

whoever builds his gate high seeks destruction. ⁷ 

Amsal 21:12

21:12 The Righteous One ⁸  considers ⁹  the house ¹⁰  of the wicked;

he overthrows the wicked to their ruin. ¹¹ 

[7:26]  ¹ tn Heb “she has caused to fall.”

[7:26]  ² tn Heb “numerous” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT) or “countless.”

[12:7]  ³ sn This proverb is about the stability of the righteous in times of trouble. The term “overthrown” might allude to Gen 19:21.

[12:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “and they are not.”

[12:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “the house of the righteous.” The genitive צַדִּיקִים (tsadiqim) functions as an attributive adjective: “righteous house.” The noun בֵּית (bet, “house”) functions as a synecdoche of container (= house) for the contents (= family, household; perhaps household possessions). Cf. NCV “a good person’s family”; NLT “the children of the godly.”

[17:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “the one who loves transgression the one who loves a quarrel.” There is some ambiguity in the first line. The meaning would not differ greatly if either were taken as the subject; but the parallelism suggests that the proverb is about a quarrelsome and arrogant person who loves sin and invites destruction.

[17:19]  ⁷ tn Some have taken this second line literally and interpreted it to mean he has built a pretentious house. Probably it is meant to be figurative: The gate is the mouth (the figure would be hypocatastasis) and so to make it high is to say lofty things – he brags too much (e.g., 1 Sam 2:3; Prov 18:12; 29:23); cf. NCV, TEV, NLT. C. H. Toy (Proverbs [ICC], 348) wishes to emend פִּתְחוֹ (pitkho, “his gate”) to פִּיו (piv, “his mouth”), but that is unnecessary since the idea can be obtained by interpretation.

[21:12]  ⁸ tn In the book of Proverbs, the Hebrew term צַּדִּיק (ysadiq) normally refers to a human being, and that is a possible translation here (cf. KJV, ASV, NAB), although it would have to refer to a righteous person who was a judge or a ruler with the right to destroy the wicked. Many commentators and English versions simply interpret this as a reference to God (cf. NIV, NRSV, TEV, NLT).

[21:12]  ⁹ tn The form מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is now used with the meaning “to consider; to give attention to; to ponder.” It is the careful scrutiny that is given to the household of the wicked before judgment is poured out on them.

[21:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “house.” This term probably means “household” here – the family. One way to read the line is that the righteous judge (human or divine) takes into consideration the wicked person’s family before judging the wicked person. The other – and more plausible – interpretation is that the judge considers the household of the wicked and then on the basis of what was observed judges them.

[21:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to evil” (i.e., catastrophe); cf. NLT “to disaster.”