Amsal 14:28

14:28 A king’s glory is ¹  the abundance of people,

but the lack of subjects ²  is the ruin ³  of a ruler.

Amsal 19:4

19:4 Wealth adds many friends,

but a poor person is separated ⁴  from his friend. ⁵ 

Amsal 22:12

22:12 The eyes of the Lord ⁶  guard knowledge, ⁷ 

but he overthrows the words of the faithless person. ⁸ 

[14:28]  ¹ tn The preposition serves as the beth essentiae – the glory is the abundant population, not in it.

[14:28]  ² tn Heb “people.” Cf. NLT “a dwindling nation.”

[14:28]  ³ sn The word means “ruin; destruction,” but in this context it could be a metonymy of effect, the cause being an attack by more numerous people that will bring ruin to the ruler. The proverb is purely a practical and secular saying, unlike some of the faith teachings in salvation history passages.

[19:4]  ⁴ tn The Niphal imperfect probably should be taken in the passive sense (the poor person is deserted by his “friend,” cf. NAB, NIV) rather than as a direct middle (the poor person deserted his friend).

[19:4]  ⁵ sn This proverb simply makes an observation on life: People pursue wealthy folk hoping that they can gain something from the rich, but the poor are deserted even by friends, who fear that the poor will try to gain something from them.

[22:12]  ⁶ sn The “eyes of the Lord” is an anthropomorphic expression; the omniscience of God is the intended meaning. When scripture uses the “eyes” of the Lord, it usually means evaluation, superintending, or safeguarding.

[22:12]  ⁷ tn There is a slight difficulty in that the abstract noun “knowledge” is used nowhere else in the book of Proverbs with the word “watch.” C. H. Toy (Proverbs [ICC], 418) wants to make a major change to read “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,” but there is no support for this and it reduces the line to a common idea. D. W. Thomas suggests changing the word “knowledge” to “lawsuit” based on an Arabic cognate (“A Note on דַּעַת in Proverbs 22:12,” JTS 14 [1963]: 93-94).

[22:12]  ⁸ tn The object of the verb is the “words of the traitor” (בֹגֵד דִּבְרֵי, divre voged); cf. NASB “the words of the treacherous man.” What treacherous people say is treachery. In this context “traitor, treacherous” refers to one who is “unfaithful” (cf. NIV).

[22:12]  sn The proverb affirms that God in safeguarding true knowledge will frustrate deception from faithless people – what they say will not have its intended effect.