Amsal 11:12

11:12 The one who denounces ¹  his neighbor lacks wisdom, ² 

but the one who has discernment ³  keeps silent. ⁴ 

Ayub 12:4

12:4 I am ⁵  a laughingstock ⁶  to my friends, ⁷ 

I, who called on God and whom he answered ⁸  –

a righteous and blameless ⁹  man

is a laughingstock!

Mazmur 123:3-4

123:3 Show us favor, O Lord, show us favor!

For we have had our fill of humiliation, and then some. ¹⁰ 

123:4 We have had our fill ¹¹ 

of the taunts of the self-assured,

of the contempt of the proud.

Lukas 10:16

10:16 “The one who listens ¹²  to you listens to me, ¹³  and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects ¹⁴  the one who sent me.” ¹⁵ 

Lukas 16:14

More Warnings about the Pharisees

16:14 The Pharisees ¹⁶  (who loved money) heard all this and ridiculed ¹⁷  him.

Roma 2:4-5

2:4 Or do you have contempt for the wealth of his kindness, forbearance, and patience, and yet do not know ¹⁸  that God’s kindness leads you to repentance? 2:5 But because of your stubbornness ¹⁹  and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed! ²⁰ 

Roma 2:2

2:2 Now we know that God’s judgment is in accordance with truth ²¹  against those who practice such things.

Titus 3:2-3

3:2 They must not slander ²²  anyone, but be peaceable, gentle, showing complete courtesy to all people. 3:3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, misled, enslaved to various passions and desires, spending our lives in evil and envy, hateful and hating one another.

[11:12]  ¹ tn Heb “despises” (so NASB) or “belittles” (so NRSV). The participle בָּז (baz, from בּוּז, buz) means “to despise; to show contempt for” someone. It reflects an attitude of pride and judgmentalism. In view of the parallel line, in this situation it would reflect perhaps some public denunciation of another person.

[11:12]  sn According to Proverbs (and the Bible as a whole) how one treats a neighbor is an important part of righteousness. One was expected to be a good neighbor, and to protect and safeguard the life and reputation of a neighbor.

[11:12]  ² tn Heb “heart.” The noun לֵב (lev, “heart”) functions as a metonymy of association for wisdom, since the heart is often associated with knowledge and wisdom (BDB 524 s.v. 3.a).

[11:12]  ³ tn Heb “a man of discernment.”

[11:12]  ⁴ sn The verb translated “keeps silence” (יַחֲרִישׁ, yakharish) means “holds his peace.” Rather than publicly denouncing another person’s mistake or folly, a wise person will keep quiet about it (e.g., 1 Sam 10:27). A discerning person realizes that the neighbor may become an opponent and someday retaliate.

[12:4]  ⁵ tn Some are troubled by the disharmony with “I am” and “to his friend.” Even though the difficulty is not insurmountable, some have emended the text. Some simply changed the verb to “he is,” which was not very compelling. C. D. Isbell argued that אֶהְיֶה (’ehyeh, “I am”) is an orthographic variant of יִהְיֶה (yihyeh, “he will”) – “a person who does not know these things would be a laughingstock” (JANESCU 37 [1978]: 227-36). G. R. Driver suggests the meaning of the MT is something like “(One that is) a mockery to his friend I am to be.”

[12:4]  ⁶ tn The word simply means “laughter”; but it can also mean the object of laughter (see Jer 20:7). The LXX jumps from one “laughter” to the next, eliminating everything in between, presumably due to haplography.

[12:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “his friend.” A number of English versions (e.g., NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT) take this collectively, “to my friends.”

[12:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “one calling to God and he answered him.” H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 92) contends that because Job has been saying that God is not answering him, these words must be part of the derisive words of his friends.

[12:4]  ⁹ tn The two words, צַדִּיק תָּמִים (tsadiq tamim), could be understood as a hendiadys (= “blamelessly just”) following W. G. E. Watson (Classical Hebrew Poetry, 327).

[123:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for greatly we are filled [with] humiliation.”

[123:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “greatly our soul is full to it.”

[10:16]  ¹² tn Grk “hears you”; but as the context of vv. 8-9 makes clear, it is response that is the point. In contemporary English, “listen to” is one way to express this function (L&N 31.56).

[10:16]  ¹³ sn Jesus linked himself to the disciples’ message: Responding to the disciples (listens to you) counts as responding to him.

[10:16]  ¹⁴ tn The double mention of rejection in this clause – ἀθετῶν ἀθετεῖ (aqetwn aqetei) in the Greek text – keeps up the emphasis of the section.

[10:16]  ¹⁵ sn The one who sent me refers to God.

[16:14]  ¹⁶ sn See the note on Pharisees in 5:17.

[16:14]  ¹⁷ tn A figurative extension of the literal meaning “to turn one’s nose up at someone”; here “ridicule, sneer at, show contempt for” (L&N 33.409).

[2:4]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “being unaware.”

[2:5]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “hardness.” Concerning this imagery, see Jer 4:4; Ezek 3:7; 1 En. 16:3.

[2:5]  ²⁰ tn Grk “in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”

[2:2]  ²¹ tn Or “based on truth.”

[3:2]  ²² tn Or “discredit,” “damage the reputation of.”