Amsal 12:22

12:22 The Lord ¹  abhors a person who lies, ² 

but those who deal truthfully ³  are his delight. ⁴ 

Amsal 14:5

14:5 A truthful witness ⁵  does not lie,

but a false witness ⁶  breathes out lies. ⁷ 

Amsal 14:25

14:25 A truthful witness ⁸  rescues lives, ⁹ 

but the one who breathes lies brings ¹⁰  deception. ¹¹ 

Amsal 23:26

23:26 Give me your heart, my son, ¹² 

and let your eyes observe my ways;

[12:22]  ¹ tn Heb “an abomination of the Lord.” The term יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the Lord”) is a subjective genitive.

[12:22]  ² tn Heb “lips of lying.” The genitive שָׁקֶר (shaqer, “lying”) functions as an attributive genitive: “lying lips.” The term “lips” functions as a synecdoche of part (= lips) for the whole (= person): “a liar.”

[12:22]  ³ tn Heb “but doers of truthfulness.” The term “truthfulness” is an objective genitive, meaning: “those who practice truth” or “those who act in good faith.” Their words and works are reliable.

[12:22]  ⁴ sn The contrast between “delight/pleasure” and “abomination” is emphatic. What pleases the Lord is acting truthfully or faithfully.

[14:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “a witness of faithfulness.” The genitive functions in an attributive sense: “faithful witness” (so KJV, NRSV); TEV “reliable witness.”

[14:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “a witness of falsehood.” The genitive functions in an attributive sense: “false witness.”

[14:5]  ⁷ sn This saying addresses the problem of legal testimony: A faithful witness does not lie, but a false witness does lie – naturally. The first colon uses the verb כָּזַב (kazav, “to lie”) and the second colon uses the noun כָּזָב (kazav, “lie; falsehood”).

[14:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “a witness of truth”; cf. CEV “an honest witness.”

[14:25]  ⁹ tn The noun נְפָשׁוֹת (nÿfashot) often means “souls,” but here “lives” – it functions as a metonymy for life (BDB 659 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 3.c).

[14:25]  sn The setting of this proverb is the courtroom. One who tells the truth “saves” (מַצִּיל [matsil, “rescues; delivers”]) the lives of those falsely accused.

[14:25]  ¹⁰ tn The term “brings” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity. Also possible, “is deceitful.”

[14:25]  ¹¹ tc Several commentators suggest emending the text from the noun מִרְמָה (mirmah, “deception”) to the participle מְרַמֶּה (mÿrameh, “destroys”). However, this revocalization is not necessary because the MT makes sense as it stands: A false witness destroys lives.

[23:26]  ¹² tn Heb “my son”; the reference to a “son” is retained in the translation here because in the following lines the advice is to avoid women who are prostitutes.