Amsal 9:3

9:3 She has sent out her female servants;

she calls out on the highest places ¹  of the city.

Amsal 12:21

12:21 The righteous do not encounter ²  any harm, ³ 

but the wicked are filled with calamity. ⁴ 

Amsal 15:27

15:27 The one who is greedy for gain ⁵  troubles ⁶  his household, ⁷ 

but whoever hates bribes ⁸  will live.

Amsal 17:21

17:21 Whoever brings a fool ⁹  into the world ¹⁰  does so ¹¹  to his grief,

and the father of a fool has no joy. ¹² 

Amsal 18:14

18:14 A person’s spirit ¹³  sustains him through sickness –

but who can bear ¹⁴  a crushed spirit? ¹⁵ 

Amsal 29:25

29:25 The fear of people ¹⁶  becomes ¹⁷  a snare, ¹⁸ 

but whoever trusts in the Lord will be set on high. ¹⁹ 

[9:3]  ¹ tn The text uses two synonymous terms in construct to express the superlative degree.

[12:21]  ² tn Heb “is not allowed to meet to the righteous.”

[12:21]  ³ tn Heb “all calamity.” The proper nuance of אָוֶן (’aven) is debated. It is normally understood metonymically (effect) as “harm; trouble,” that is, the result/effect of wickedness (e.g., Gen 50:20). Rashi, a Jewish scholar who lived a.d. 1040-1105, took it as “wickedness,” its primary meaning; “the righteous will not be caught up in wickedness.”

[12:21]  ⁴ tn The expression רָע מָלְאוּ (malÿ’u ra’, “to be full of evil”) means (1) the wicked do much evil or (2) the wicked experience much calamity (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[15:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “the one who gains.” The phrase בּוֹצֵעַ בָּצַע (botseakh batsa’) is a participle followed by its cognate accusative. This refers to a person who is always making the big deal, getting the larger cut, or in a hurry to get rich. The verb, though, makes it clear that the gaining of a profit is by violence and usually unjust, since the root has the idea of “cut off; break off; gain by violence.” The line is contrasted with hating bribes, and so the gain in this line may be through bribery.

[15:27]  ⁶ sn The participle “troubles” (עֹכֵר, ’okher) can have the connotation of making things difficult for the family, or completely ruining the family (cf. NAB). In Josh 7:1 Achan took some of the “banned things” and was put to death: Because he “troubled Israel,” the Lord would “trouble” him (take his life, Josh 7:25).

[15:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “his house.”

[15:27]  ⁸ tn Heb “gifts” (so KJV). Gifts can be harmless enough, but in a setting like this the idea is that the “gift” is in exchange for some “profit [or, gain].” Therefore they are bribes (cf. ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), and to be hated or rejected. Abram, for example, would not take anything that the king of Sodom had to offer, “lest [he] say, “I have made Abram rich” (Gen 14:22-24).

[17:21]  ⁹ sn Here the Hebrew terms כְּסִיל (kÿsil) and נָבָל (naval) are paired. The first one, which occurs about fifty times in the book, refers to a dullard, whether it be in spiritual, intellectual, or moral matters. The second word, rare in the book, primarily focuses on religious folly – it refers to the practical atheist, the one who lives as if there is no God.

[17:21]  ¹⁰ tn The form simply means “bears” or “gives birth to,” but since it is masculine it could be rendered “fathers” (cf. NASB “he who begets a fool”; NIV “To have a fool for a son”). The form for “fool” is masculine, but the proverb is not limited only to male children (cf. NCV “It is sad to have a foolish child”).

[17:21]  ¹¹ tn The phrase “does so” is supplied for the sake of clarification.

[17:21]  ¹² sn Parents of fools, who had hoped for children who would be a credit to the family, find only bitter disappointment (cf. TEV “nothing but sadness and sorrow”).

[18:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “the spirit of a man.” Because the verb of this clause is a masculine form, some have translated this line as “with spirit a man sustains,” but that is an unnecessary change.

[18:14]  ¹⁴ sn This is a rhetorical question, asserting that very few can cope with depression.

[18:14]  ¹⁵ sn The figure of a “crushed spirit” (ASV, NAB, NCV, NRSV “a broken spirit,” comparing depression to something smashed or crushed) suggests a broken will, a loss of vitality, despair, and emotional pain. In physical sickness one can fall back on the will to live; but in depression even the will to live is gone.

[29:25]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the fear of man.” This uses an objective genitive to describe a situation where fearing what people might do or think controls one’s life. There is no indication in the immediate context that this should be limited only to males, so the translation uses the more generic “people” here.

[29:25]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “gives [or yields, or produces]”; NIV “will prove to be.”

[29:25]  ¹⁸ sn “Snare” is an implied comparison; fearing people is like being in a trap – there is no freedom of movement or sense of security.

[29:25]  ¹⁹ sn The image of being set on high comes from the military experience of finding a defensible position, a place of safety and security, such as a high wall or a mountain. Trusting in the Lord sets people free and gives them a sense of safety and security (e.g, Prov 10:27; 12:2).