Amsal 1:15

1:15 My child, do not go down ¹  their way, ² 

withhold yourself ³  from their path; ⁴ 

Amsal 4:5

4:5 Acquire wisdom, acquire understanding;

do not forget and do not turn aside from the words I speak. ⁵ 

Amsal 5:3

5:3 For the lips ⁶  of the adulterous woman drip honey,

and her seductive words ⁷  are smoother than olive oil,

Amsal 13:2

13:2 From the fruit of his speech ⁸  a person eats good things, ⁹ 

but the faithless ¹⁰  desire ¹¹  the fruit of violence. ¹² 

Amsal 19:9

19:9 A false witness will not go unpunished,

and the one who spouts out ¹³  lies will perish. ¹⁴ 

Amsal 20:11

20:11 Even a young man ¹⁵  is known ¹⁶  by his actions,

whether his activity is pure and whether it is right. ¹⁷ 

[1:15]  ¹ tn Heb “do not walk.”

[1:15]  ² tn Heb “in the way with them.”

[1:15]  ³ tn Heb “your foot.” The term “foot” (רֶגֶל, regel) is a synecdoche of part (= your foot) for the whole person (= yourself).

[1:15]  ⁴ sn The word “path” (נְתִיבָה, nÿtivah) like the word “way” (דֶּרֶךְ, derekh) is used as an idiom (developed from a hypocatastasis), meaning “conduct, course of life.”

[4:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “from the words of my mouth” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); TEV, CEV “what I say.”

[4:5]  sn The verse uses repetition for the imperative “acquire” to underscore the importance of getting wisdom; it then uses two verb forms for the one prepositional phrase to stress the warning.

[5:3]  ⁶ sn “Lips” is a metonymy of cause, referring to her words. Dripping honey is an implied comparison between the product and her words, which are flattering and smooth (cf. Song 4:11). See M. Dahood, “Honey That Drips. Notes on Proverbs 5:2-3,” Bib 54 (1973): 65-66.

[5:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “her palate.” The word חֵךְ (khekh, “palate; roof of the mouth; gums”) is a metonymy of cause (= organ of speech) for what is said (= her seductive speech). The present translation clarifies this metonymy with the phrase “her seductive words.”

[13:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “lips” (so NIV); KJV “mouth.” The term “lips” is a metonymy of cause for what the lips produce: speech.

[13:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “he eats [what is] good.”

[13:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the desire of the faithless.” The noun “faithless” is a subjective genitive: “the faithless desire….”

[13:2]  ¹¹ tn The noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, traditionally “soul”) has a broad range of meanings, and here denotes “appetite” (e.g., Ps 17:9; Prov 23:3; Eccl 2:24; Isa 5:14; Hab 2:5; BDB 660 s.v. 5.c) or (2) “desire” (e.g., Deut 12:20; Prov 13:4; 19:8; 21:10; BDB 660 s.v. 6.a).

[13:2]  ¹² tn Heb “violence.” The phrase “the fruit of” does not appear in the Hebrew but is implied by the parallelism. The term “violence” is probably a metonymy of cause: “violence” represents what violence gains – ill-gotten gains resulting from violent crime. The wicked desire what does not belong to them.

[13:2]  tc The LXX reads “the souls of the wicked perish untimely.” The MT makes sense as it stands.

[19:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “breathes out”; NAB “utters”; NIV “pours out.”

[19:9]  ¹⁴ sn The verse is the same as v. 5, except that the last word changes to the verb “will perish” (cf. NCV “will die”; CEV, NLT “will be destroyed”; TEV “is doomed”).

[20:11]  ¹⁵ sn In the first nine chapters of the book of Proverbs the Hebrew term נַעַר (na’ar) referred to an adolescent, a young person whose character was being formed in his early life.

[20:11]  ¹⁶ sn The Hebrew verb נָכַר (nakhar) means “to recognize” more than simply “to know.” Certain character traits can be recognized in a child by what he does (cf. NCV “by their behavior”).

[20:11]  ¹⁷ sn Character is demonstrated by actions at any age. But the emphasis of the book of Proverbs would also be that if the young child begins to show such actions, then the parents must try to foster and cultivate them; if not, they must try to develop them through teaching and discipline.