Amsal 12:2

12:2 A good person obtains favor from the Lord,

but the Lord ¹  condemns a person with wicked schemes. ² 

Amsal 12:5

12:5 The plans ³  of the righteous are just;

the counsels of the wicked are deceitful. ⁴ 

Amsal 15:22

15:22 Plans fail ⁵  when there is no counsel,

but with abundant advisers they are established. ⁶ 

Amsal 19:21

19:21 There are many plans ⁷  in a person’s mind, ⁸ 

but it ⁹  is the counsel ¹⁰  of the Lord which will stand.

Amsal 21:5

21:5 The plans of the diligent ¹¹  lead ¹²  only to plenty, ¹³ 

but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. ¹⁴ 

[12:2]  ¹ tn Heb “but he condemns”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:2]  ² tn Heb “a man of wicked plans.” The noun מְזִמּוֹת (mÿzimmot, “evil plans”) functions as an attributive genitive: “an evil-scheming man.” Cf. NASB “a man who devises evil”; NAB “the schemer.”

[12:5]  ³ tn Heb “thoughts.” This term refers not just to random thoughts, however, but to what is planned or devised.

[12:5]  ⁴ sn The plans of good people are directed toward what is right. Advice from the wicked, however, is deceitful and can only lead to trouble.

[15:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “go wrong” (so NRSV, NLT). The verb is the Hiphil infinitive absolute from פָּרַר, parar, which means “to break; to frustrate; to go wrong” (HALOT 975 s.v. I פרר 2). The plans are made ineffectual or are frustrated when there is insufficient counsel.

[15:22]  ⁶ sn The proverb says essentially the same thing as 11:14, but differently.

[19:21]  ⁷ sn The plans (from the Hebrew verb חָשַׁב [khashav], “to think; to reckon; to devise”) in the human heart are many. But only those which God approves will succeed.

[19:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “in the heart of a man” (cf. NAB, NIV). Here “heart” is used for the seat of thoughts, plans, and reasoning, so the translation uses “mind.” In contemporary English “heart” is more often associated with the seat of emotion than with the seat of planning and reasoning.

[19:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “but the counsel of the Lord, it will stand.” The construction draws attention to the “counsel of the Lord”; it is an independent nominative absolute, and the resumptive independent pronoun is the formal subject of the verb.

[19:21]  ¹⁰ tn The antithetical parallelism pairs “counsel” with “plans.” “Counsel of the Lord” (עֲצַת יְהוָה, ’atsat yehvah) is literally “advice” or “counsel” with the connotation of “plan” in this context (cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT “purpose”; NCV “plan”; TEV “the Lord’s will”).

[19:21]  sn The point of the proverb is that the human being with many plans is uncertain, but the Lord with a sure plan gives correct counsel.

[21:5]  ¹¹ tn The word “diligent” is an adjective used substantivally. The related verb means “to cut, sharpen, decide”; so the adjective describes one who is “sharp” – one who acts decisively. The word “hasty” has the idea of being pressed or pressured into quick actions. So the text contrasts calculated expeditiousness with unproductive haste. C. H. Toy does not like this contrast, and so proposes changing the latter to “lazy” (Proverbs [ICC], 399), but W. McKane rightly criticizes that as unnecessarily forming a pedestrian antithesis (Proverbs [OTL], 550).

[21:5]  ¹² tn The term “lead” is supplied in the translation.

[21:5]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew noun translated “plenty” comes from the verb יָתַר (yatar), which means “to remain over.” So the calculated diligence will lead to abundance, prosperity.

[21:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “lack; need; thing needed”; NRSV “to want.”