Amsal 14:17

14:17 A person who has a quick temper ¹  does foolish things,

and a person with crafty schemes ²  is hated. ³ 

Amsal 28:6

28:6 A poor person ⁴  who walks in his integrity is better

than one who is perverse in his ways ⁵  even though ⁶  he is rich. ⁷ 

Amsal 31:29

31:29 “Many ⁸  daughters ⁹  have done valiantly, ¹⁰ 

but you surpass them all!”

[14:17]  ¹ sn The proverb discusses two character traits that are distasteful to others – the quick tempered person (“short of anger” or impatient) and the crafty person (“man of devices”). C. H. Toy thinks that the proverb is antithetical and renders it “but a wise man endures” (Proverbs [ICC], 292). In other words, the quick-tempered person acts foolishly and loses people’s respect, but the wise man does not.

[14:17]  ² tn Heb “a man of devices.”

[14:17]  ³ tc The LXX reads “endures” (from נָשָׂא, nasa’) rather than “is hated” (from שָׂנֵא, sane’). This change seems to have arisen on the assumption that a contrast was needed. It has: “a man of thought endures.” Other versions take מְזִמּוֹת (mÿzimmot) in a good sense; but antithetical parallelism is unwarranted here.

[28:6]  ⁴ sn This chapter gives a lot of attention to the contrast between the poor and the rich, assuming an integrity for the poor that is not present with the rich; the subject is addressed in vv. 6, 8, 11, 20, 22, 25, and 27 (G. A. Chutter, “Riches and Poverty in the Book of Proverbs,” Crux 18 [1982]: 23-28).

[28:6]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term translated “ways” is in the dual, suggesting that the person has double ways, i.e., he is hypocritical. C. H. Toy does not like this idea and changes the form to the plural (Proverbs [ICC], 497), but his emendation is gratuitous and should be rejected.

[28:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he is rich.” Many English versions treat this as a concessive clause (cf. KJV “though he be rich”).

[28:6]  ⁷ sn This is another “better” saying, contrasting a poor person who has integrity with a rich person who is perverse. Of course there are rich people with integrity and perverse poor people, but that is not of interest here. If it came to the choices described here, honest poverty is better than corrupt wealth.

[31:29]  ⁸ tn The first word of the twentieth line begins with ר (resh), the twentieth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[31:29]  ⁹ tn Or “women” (NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[31:29]  ¹⁰ tn The word is the same as in v. 10, “noble, valiant.”