14:1 Every wise woman 1 builds 2 her household, 3
but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands.
24:3 By 4 wisdom a house is built, 5
and through understanding it is established;
24:4 by knowledge its rooms are filled
with all kinds of precious and pleasing treasures.
24:2 for their hearts contemplate violence,
and their lips speak harm. 6
7:1 Then the people 8 of Kiriath Jearim came and took the ark of the Lord; they brought it to the house of Abinadab located on the hill. They consecrated Eleazar his son to guard the ark of the Lord.
7:24 “Everyone 9 who hears these words of mine and does them is like 10 a wise man 11 who built his house on rock. 7:25 The rain fell, the flood 12 came, and the winds beat against that house, but it did not collapse because it had been founded on rock. 7:26 Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 7:27 The rain fell, the flood came, and the winds beat against that house, and it collapsed; it was utterly destroyed!” 13
1 tn Heb “wise ones of women.” The construct phrase חַכְמוֹת נָשִׁים (khakhmot nashim) features a wholistic genitive: “wise women.” The plural functions in a distributive sense: “every wise woman.” The contrast is between wise and foolish women (e.g., Prov 7:10-23; 31:10-31).
2 tn The perfect tense verb in the first colon functions in a gnomic sense, while the imperfect tense in the second colon is a habitual imperfect.
3 tn Heb “house.” This term functions as a synecdoche of container (= house) for contents (= household, family).
4 tn The preposition בְּ (bet, “by; through”) in these two lines indicates means.
5 sn The twentieth saying, vv. 3-4, concerns the use of wisdom for domestic enterprises. In Prov 9:1 wisdom was personified as a woman who builds a house; but here the emphasis is primarily on the building – it is a sign of security and prosperity (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 442). One could still make a secondary application from this line for a household or “family” (cf. NCV, which sees this as a reference to the family).
6 sn This nineteenth saying warns against evil associations. Evil people are obsessed with destruction and trouble. See on this theme 1:10-19; 3:31 and 23:17. D. Kidner observes that a close view of sinners is often a good antidote to envying them (Proverbs [TOTC], 153).
7 map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.
8 tn Heb “men.”
9 tn Grk “Therefore everyone.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated.
10 tn Grk “will be like.” The same phrase occurs in v. 26.
11 tn Here and in v. 26 the Greek text reads ἀνήρ (anhr), while the parallel account in Luke 6:47-49 uses ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") in vv. 48 and 49.
12 tn Grk “the rivers.”
13 tn Grk “and great was its fall.”