Amsal 14:1

14:1 Every wise woman ¹  builds ²  her household, ³ 

but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands.

Amsal 26:6-7

26:6 Like cutting off the feet or drinking violence, ⁴ 

so is sending ⁵  a message by the hand of a fool. ⁶ 

26:7 Like legs that hang limp ⁷  from the lame,

so ⁸  is a proverb ⁹  in the mouth of fools.

Amsal 27:20

27:20 As ¹⁰  Death and Destruction are never satisfied, ¹¹ 

so the eyes of a person ¹²  are never satisfied. ¹³ 

Amsal 31:21

31:21 She is not ¹⁴  afraid of the snow ¹⁵  for her household,

for all of her household are clothed with scarlet. ¹⁶ 

[14:1]  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).

[14:1]  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.

[14:1]  ³ tn Heb “house.” This term functions as a synecdoche of container (= house) for contents (= household, family).

[26:6]  ⁴ sn Sending a messenger on a mission is like having another pair of feet. But if the messenger is a fool, this proverb says, not only does the sender not have an extra pair of feet – he cuts off the pair he has. It would not be simply that the message did not get through; it would get through incorrectly and be a setback! The other simile uses “violence,” a term for violent social wrongs and injustice. The metaphorical idea of “drinking” violence means suffering violence – it is one’s portion. So sending a fool on a mission will have injurious consequences.

[26:6]  ⁵ tn The participle could be taken as the subject of the sentence: “the one who sends…cuts off…and drinks.”

[26:6]  ⁶ sn The consequence is given in the first line and the cause in the second. It would be better not to send a message at all than to use a fool as messenger.

[26:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “like the legs which hang down from the lame” (so NASB). The is דַּלְיוּ (dalyu), from דָּלַל (dalal, “to hang; to be low; to languish”) although the spelling of the form indicates it would be from דָּלָה (dalah, “to draw” [water]). The word indicates the uselessness of the legs – they are there but cannot be used. Luther gave the verse a fanciful but memorable rendering: “Like dancing to a cripple, so is a proverb in the mouth of the fool.”

[26:7]  ⁸ tn The proverb does not begin with a כְּ (bet) preposition to indicate a simile; but the analogy within the verse makes it clear that the first line is the emblem. The conjunction vav then indicates the equation – “so.”

[26:7]  ⁹ sn As C. H. Toy puts it, the fool is a “proverb-monger” (Proverbs [ICC], 474); he handles an aphorism about as well as a lame man can walk. The fool does not understand, has not implemented, and cannot explain the proverb. It is useless to him even though he repeats it.

[27:20]  ¹⁰ tn The term “as” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation in light of the analogy.

[27:20]  ¹¹ sn Countless generations of people have gone into the world below; yet “death” is never satisfied – it always takes more. The line personifies Death and Destruction. It forms the emblem in the parallelism.

[27:20]  ¹² tn Heb “eyes of a man.” This expression refers to the desires – what the individual looks longingly on. Ecclesiastes Rabbah 1:34 (one of the rabbinic Midrashim) says, “No man dies and has one-half of what he wanted.”

[27:20]  ¹³ tc The LXX contains a scribal addition: “He who fixes his eye is an abomination to the Lord, and the uninstructed do not restrain their tongues.” This is unlikely to be original.

[31:21]  ¹⁴ tn The first word of the twelfth line begins with ל (lamed), the twelfth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[31:21]  ¹⁵ sn “Snow” is a metonymy of adjunct; it refers to the cold weather when snow comes. The verse is saying that this time is not a concern for the wise woman because the family is well prepared.

[31:21]  ¹⁶ tn For the MT’s “scarlet” the LXX and the Latin have “two” or “double” – the difference being essentially the vocalization of a plural as opposed to a dual. The word is taken in the versions with the word that follows (“covers”) to means “double garments.” The question to be asked is whether scarlet would keep one warm in winter or double garments. The latter is the easier reading and therefore suspect.