Amsal 17:24

17:24 Wisdom is directly in front of ¹  the discerning person,

but the eyes of a fool run ²  to the ends of the earth. ³ 

Amsal 30:4

30:4 Who has ascended into heaven, and then descended? ⁴ 

Who has gathered up the winds in his fists? ⁵ 

Who has bound up the waters in his cloak? ⁶ 

Who has established all the ends of the earth? ⁷ 

What is his name, and what is his son’s name? ⁸  – if you know!

Amsal 14:12

14:12 There is a way that seems right to a person, ⁹ 

but its end is the way that leads to death. ¹⁰ 

Amsal 16:25

16:25 There is a way that seems right to a person, ¹¹ 

but its end is the way that leads to death. ¹² 

Amsal 23:34

23:34 And you will be like one who lies down in the midst ¹³  of the sea,

and like one who lies down on the top of the rigging. ¹⁴ 

Amsal 8:34

8:34 Blessed is the one ¹⁵  who listens to me,

watching ¹⁶  at my doors day by day,

waiting ¹⁷  beside my doorway. ¹⁸ 

[17:24]  ¹ tn The verse begins with אֶת־פְּנֵי מֵבִין (’et-pÿni mevin), “before the discerning” or “the face of the discerning.” The particle אֶת here is simply drawing emphasis to the predicate (IBHS 182-83 §10.3.2b). Cf. NIV “A discerning man keeps wisdom in view.”

[17:24]  ² tn The term “run” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for the sake of clarification.

[17:24]  ³ sn To say that “the eyes of the fool run to the ends of the earth” means that he has no power to concentrate and cannot focus his attention on anything. The language is hyperbolic. Cf. NCV “the mind of a fool wanders everywhere.”

[30:4]  ⁴ sn To make his point Agur includes five questions. These, like Job 38–41, or Proverbs 8:24-29, focus on the divine acts to show that it is absurd for a mere mortal to think that he can explain God’s work or compare himself to God. These questions display mankind’s limitations and God’s incomparable nature. The first question could be open to include humans, but may refer to God alone (as the other questions do).

[30:4]  ⁵ sn The questions are filled with anthropomorphic language. The questioner is asking what humans have ever done this, but the meaning is that only God has done this. “Gathering the wind in his fists” is a way of expressing absolute sovereign control over the forces of nature.

[30:4]  ⁶ sn The question is comparing the clouds of the heavens to garments (e.g., Job 26:8). T. T. Perowne writes, “Men bind up water in skins or bottles; God binds up the rain-floods in the thin, gauzy texture of the changing clouds, which yet by his power does not rend under its burden of waters.”

[30:4]  ⁷ sn The ends of the earth is an expression often used in scripture as a metonymy of subject referring to the people who live in the ends of the earth, the far off and remote lands and islands. While that is possible here as well, this may simply be a synecdoche saying that God created the whole world, even the most remote and distant places.

[30:4]  ⁸ sn The reference to “son” in this passage has prompted many suggestions down through the years: It was identified as Israel in the Jewish Midrashim, the Logos or demiurge by some of the philosophers and allegorical writers, as simple poetic parallelism without a separate identity by some critical scholars, and as Jesus by Christian commentators. Parallels with Ugaritic are interesting, because Baal is referred to as a son; but that is bound up within the pantheon where there was a father god. Some of the Jewish commentators exhibit a strange logic in expressing what Christians would say is only their blindness to the full revelation: There is little cogency in this being a reference to Jesus because if there had been such a person at any time in the past he would have left some tradition about it through his descendants (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 317). But Judaism has taught from the earliest times that Messiah was preexistent (especially in view of Micah 5 and Daniel 7); and the claims of Jesus in the Gospels bear this out. It seems best to say that there is a hint here of the nature of the Messiah as Son, a hint that will later be revealed in full through the incarnation.

[14:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “which is straight before a man.”

[14:12]  sn The proverb recalls the ways of the adulterous woman in chapters 1-9, and so the translation of “man” is retained. The first line does not say that the “way” that seems right is “vice,” but the second line clarifies that. The individual can rationalize all he wants, but the result is still the same. The proverb warns that any evil activity can take any number of ways (plural) to destruction.

[14:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the ways of death” (so KJV, ASV). This construct phrase features a genitive of destiny: “ways that lead to [or, end in] death.” Here death means ruin (e.g., Prov 7:27; 16:25). The LXX adds “Hades,” but the verse seems to be concerned with events of this life.

[16:25]  ¹¹ tn Heb “There is a way that is right before a man [to the face of a man].”

[16:25]  ¹² tn Heb “the ways of death” (so KJV, ASV). This construct phrase features a genitive of destiny: “ways that lead to [or, end in] death.”This proverb is identical to 14:12.

[23:34]  ¹³ tn Heb “heart.” The idiom here means “middle”; KJV “in the midst.”

[23:34]  ¹⁴ sn The point of these similes is to compare being drunk with being seasick. One who tries to sleep when at sea, or even worse, when up on the ropes of the mast, will be tossed back and forth.

[8:34]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the man.”

[8:34]  ¹⁶ tn The form לִשְׁקֹד (lishqod) is the infinitive construct serving epexegetically in the sentence. It explains how the person will listen to wisdom.

[8:34]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “keeping” or “guarding.”

[8:34]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “at the posts of my doors” (so KJV, ASV).