Amsal 20:10
Konteks20:10 Diverse weights and diverse measures 1 –
the Lord abhors 2 both of them.
Amsal 20:12
Konteks20:12 The ear that hears and the eye that sees 3 –
the Lord has made them both. 4
Amsal 30:7
Konteks30:7 Two things 5 I ask from you; 6
do not refuse me before I die:
Amsal 29:13
Konteks29:13 The poor person and the oppressor 7 have this in common: 8
the Lord gives light 9 to the eyes of them both.
Amsal 17:15
Konteks17:15 The one who acquits the guilty and the one who condemns the innocent 10 –
both of them are an abomination to the Lord. 11
Amsal 30:15
Konteks30:15 The leech 12 has two daughters: 13
“Give! Give!” 14
There are three things that are never satisfied,
four 15 that never say, “Enough” 16 –
Amsal 27:3
Konteks27:3 A stone is heavy and sand is weighty,
but vexation 17 by a fool is more burdensome 18 than the two of them.
Amsal 24:21
Konteks24:21 Fear the Lord, my child, 19 as well as the king,
and do not associate 20 with rebels, 21
Amsal 5:4
Konteks5:4 but in the end 22 she is bitter 23 as wormwood, 24
sharp as a two-edged 25 sword.
Amsal 20:23
Konteks20:23 The Lord abhors 26 differing weights,
and dishonest scales are wicked. 27
Amsal 24:22
Konteks24:22 for suddenly their destruction will overtake them, 28
and who knows the ruinous judgment both the Lord and the king can bring? 29
Amsal 3:21-22
Konteks3:21 My child, do not let them 30 escape from your sight;
safeguard sound wisdom and discretion. 31
3:22 So 32 they will give 33 life to you, 34
and grace to adorn 35 your neck. 36
Amsal 7:20
Konteks7:20 He has taken a bag of money with him; 37
he will not return until 38 the end of the month.” 39
Amsal 14:1
Konteks14:1 Every wise woman 40 builds 41 her household, 42
but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands.
Amsal 26:6-7
Konteks26:6 Like cutting off the feet or drinking violence, 43
so is sending 44 a message by the hand of a fool. 45
26:7 Like legs that hang limp 46 from the lame,
so 47 is a proverb 48 in the mouth of fools.
Amsal 27:20
Konteks27:20 As 49 Death and Destruction are never satisfied, 50
so the eyes of a person 51 are never satisfied. 52
Amsal 31:21
Konteks31:21 She is not 53 afraid of the snow 54 for her household,
for all of her household are clothed with scarlet. 55
Amsal 22:16
Konteks22:16 The one who oppresses the poor to increase his own gain
and the one who gives to the rich 56 – both end up only in poverty.
Amsal 28:18
Konteks28:18 The one who walks blamelessly will be delivered, 57
but whoever is perverse in his ways will fall 58 at once. 59
Amsal 30:8
Konteks30:8 Remove falsehood and lies 60 far from me;
do not give me poverty or riches,
[20:10] 1 tn The construction simply uses repetition to express different kinds of weights and measures: “a stone and a stone, an ephah and an ephah.”
[20:10] 2 tn Heb “an abomination of the
[20:10] sn Behind this proverb is the image of the dishonest merchant who has different sets of weights and measures which are used to cheat customers. The Lord hates dishonesty in business transactions.
[20:12] 3 sn The first half of the verse refers to two basic senses that the
[20:12] 4 sn The verse not only credits God with making these faculties of hearing and sight and giving them to people, but it also emphasizes their spiritual use in God’s service.
[30:7] 5 sn Wisdom literature often groups things in twos and fours, or in other numerical arrangements (e.g., Amos 1:3–2:6; Job 5:19; Prov 6:16-19).
[30:7] 6 tn Assuming that the contents of vv. 7-9 are a prayer, several English versions have supplied a vocative phrase: “O
[29:13] 7 tn Heb “a man of oppressions”; KJV “the deceitful man.” The noun תֹּךְ (tokh) means “injury; oppression” (BDB 1067 s.v.). Such men were usually the rich and powerful. The Greek and the Latin versions have “the debtor and creditor.”
[29:13] 8 tn The verb פָּגַשׁ (pagash) means “to meet; to encounter.” In the Niphal it means “to meet each other; to meet together” (cf. KJV, ASV). The focus in this passage is on what they share in common.
[29:13] 9 sn The expression gives light to the eyes means “gives them sight” (cf. NIV). The expression means that by giving them sight the
[17:15] 10 tn Heb “he who justifies the wicked and and he who condemns the righteous” (so NASB). The first colon uses two Hiphil participles, מַצְדִּיק (matsdiq) and מַרְשִׁיעַ (marshia’). The first means “to declare righteous” (a declarative Hiphil), and the second means “to make wicked [or, guilty]” or “to condemn” (i.e., “to declare guilty”). To declare someone righteous who is a guilty criminal, or to condemn someone who is innocent, are both abominations for the Righteous Judge of the whole earth.
[17:15] 11 tn Heb “an abomination of the
[30:15] 12 sn The next two verses describe insatiable things, things that are problematic to normal life. The meaning of v. 15a and its relationship to 15b is debated. But the “leech” seems to have been selected to begin the section because it was symbolic of greed – it sucks blood through its two suckers. This may be what the reference to two daughters calling “Give! Give!” might signify (if so, this is an implied comparison, a figure known as hypocatastasis).
[30:15] 13 sn As one might expect, there have been various attempts to identify the “two daughters.” In the Rabbinic literature some identified Alukah (the “leech”) with Sheol, and the two daughters with paradise and hell, one claiming the righteous and the other the unrighteous; others identified Alukah with Gehenna, and the two daughters with heresy and government, neither of which is ever satisfied (Midrash Tehillim quoted by Rashi, a Jewish scholar who lived
[30:15] 14 tn The two imperatives הַב הַב (hav hav, “give, give,” from יָהַב, yahav) correspond to the two daughters, and form their appeal. This would then be a personification – it is as if the leech is crying out, “Give! Give!”
[30:15] 15 sn There is a noticeable rhetorical sequence here: two daughters, three things, four (see W. M. Roth, “The Numerical Sequence x / x +1 in the Old Testament,” VT 12 [1962]: 300-311, and “Numerical Sayings in the Old Testament,” VT 13 [1965]: 86). W. McKane thinks the series builds to a climax with the four, and in the four the barren woman is the focal point, the other three being metaphors for her sexual desire (Proverbs [OTL], 656). This interpretation is a minority view, however, and has not won widespread support.
[30:15] 16 tn Throughout the book of Proverbs הוֹן (hon) means “wealth”; but here it has the nuance of “sufficiency” (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT “satisfied”) or “enough” (BDB 223 s.v.).
[27:3] 17 tn The subject matter is the vexation produced by a fool. The term כַּעַס (ca’as) means “vexation” (ASV); provocation” (NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); “anger” (KJV “wrath”) and usually refers to undeserved treatment. Cf. NLT “the resentment caused by a fool.”
[27:3] sn The same noun is used in 1 Sam 1:6, 16 for the “provocation” given to Hannah by Peninnah for being barren.
[27:3] 18 sn The contrast is made between dealing with the vexation of a fool and physical labor (moving stones and sand). More tiring is the vexation of a fool, for the mental and emotional effort it takes to deal with it is more draining than physical labor. It is, in the sense of this passage, almost unbearable.
[24:21] 19 tn Heb “my son,” but there is no indication in the immediate context that this should be limited only to male children.
[24:21] 20 tn Heb “do not get mixed up with”; cf. TEV “Have nothing to do with”; NIV “do not join with.” The verb עָרַב (’arav) is used elsewhere meaning “to exchange; to take on pledge.” In the Hitpael stem it means “to have fellowship; to share; to associate with.” Some English versions (e.g., KJV) interpret as “to meddle” in this context, because “to have fellowship” is certainly not what is meant.
[24:21] 21 tn The form rendered “rebellious” is difficult; it appears to be the Qal active participle, plural, from שָׁנָה (shanah), “to change” – “those who change.” The RV might have thought of the idea of “change” when they rendered it “political agitators.” The Syriac and Tg. Prov 24:21 have “fools,” the Latin has “detractors,” and the LXX reads, “do not disobey either of them,” referring to God and the king in the first line. Accordingly the ruin predicted in the next line would be the ruin that God and the king can inflict. If the idea of “changers” is retained, it would have to mean people who at one time feared God and the king but no longer do.
[5:4] 22 sn Heb “her end” (so KJV). D. Kidner notes that Proverbs does not allow us to forget that there is an afterward (Proverbs [TOTC], 65).
[5:4] 23 sn The verb “to be bitter” (מָרַר, marar) describes things that are harmful and destructive for life, such as the death of the members of the family of Naomi (Ruth 1:20) or finding water that was undrinkable (Exod 15:22-27). The word indicates that the sweet talking will turn out badly.
[5:4] 24 tn The Hebrew term translated “wormwood” refers to the aromatic plant that contrasts with the sweetness of honey. Some follow the LXX and translate it as “gall” (cf. NIV). The point is that there was sweetness when the tryst had alluring glamour, but afterward it had an ugly ring (W. G. Plaut, Proverbs, 74).
[5:4] 25 sn The Hebrew has “like a sword of [two] mouths,” meaning a double-edged sword that devours/cuts either way. There is no movement without damage. There may be a wordplay here with this description of the “sword with two mouths,” and the subject of the passage being the words of her mouth which also have two sides to them. The irony is cut by the idiom.
[20:23] 26 tn Heb “an abomination of the
[20:23] 27 tn Heb “not good.” This is a figure known as tapeinosis – a deliberate understatement to emphasize a worst-case scenario: “it is wicked!” (e.g., 11:1; 20:10).
[24:22] 28 tn Heb “will rise” (so NASB).
[24:22] 29 tn Heb “the ruin of the two of them.” Judgment is sent on the rebels both by God and the king. The term פִּיד (pid, “ruin; disaster”) is a metonymy of effect, the cause being the sentence of judgment (= “ruinous judgment” in the translation; cf. NLT “punishment”). The word “two of them” is a subjective genitive – they two bring the disaster on the rebels. The referents (the
[24:22] sn The reward for living in peace under God in this world is that those who do will escape the calamities that will fall on the rebellious. Verse 21a is used in 1 Peter 2:17, and v. 22 is used in Romans 13:1-7 (v. 4). This is the thirtieth and last of this collection.
[3:21] 30 tn The object of the verb “escape” is either (1) wisdom, knowledge, and understanding in vv. 13-20 or (2) “wisdom and discretion” in the second colon of this verse. Several English versions transpose the terms “wisdom and discretion” from the second colon into the first colon for the sake of clarity and smoothness (e.g., RSV, NRSV, NIV, TEV, CEV).
NIV takes the subject from the second colon and reverses the clauses to clarify that.
[3:21] 31 tn Or: “purpose,” “power of devising.”
[3:22] 32 tn Heb “and.” The vav probably denotes purpose/result.
[3:22] 33 tn Heb “they will be.”
[3:22] 34 tn Heb “your soul.” The noun נַפְשֶׁךָ (nafshekha, “your soul”) is a synecdoche of part (= inner soul) for the whole person (= you); see BDB 600 s.v. 4.a.2.
[3:22] 35 tn The phrase “to adorn” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.
[3:22] 36 tn Heb “grace for your neck.” See note on 1:9.
[7:20] 37 tn Heb “in his hand.”
[7:20] 38 tn Heb “he will come back at.”
[7:20] 39 tn Heb “new moon.” Judging from the fact that the husband took a purse of money and was staying away until the next full moon, the woman implies that they would be safe in their escapade. If v. 9 and v. 20 are any clue, he could be gone for about two weeks – until the moon is full again.
[14:1] 40 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] 41 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] 42 tn Heb “house.” This term functions as a synecdoche of container (= house) for contents (= household, family).
[26:6] 43 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] 44 tn The participle could be taken as the subject of the sentence: “the one who sends…cuts off…and drinks.”
[26:6] 45 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] 46 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] 47 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] 48 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] 49 tn The term “as” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation in light of the analogy.
[27:20] 50 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] 51 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] 52 tc The LXX contains a scribal addition: “He who fixes his eye is an abomination to the
[31:21] 53 tn The first word of the twelfth line begins with ל (lamed), the twelfth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
[31:21] 54 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] 55 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.
[22:16] 56 tn Heb “oppressing the poor, it is gain; giving to the rich, it is loss.” The Hebrew is cryptic, but two sins are mentioned here that will be punished by poverty: extortion and bribery. Perhaps the proverb is simply saying it is easy to oppress the poor for gain, but it is a waste of money to try to buy or bribe a patron (D. Kidner, Proverbs [TOTC], 149).
[28:18] 57 tn The form is the Niphal imperfect of יָשַׁע (yasha’, “will be saved”). In all probability this refers to deliverance from misfortune. Some render it “kept safe” (NIV) or “will be safe” (NRSV, TEV). It must be interpreted in contrast to the corrupt person who will fall.
[28:18] 58 tn The Qal imperfect יִפּוֹל (yipol) is given a future translation in this context, as is the previous verb (“will be delivered”) because the working out of divine retribution appears to be coming suddenly in the future. The idea of “falling” could be a metonymy of adjunct (with the falling accompanying the ruin that comes to the person), or it may simply be a comparison between falling and being destroyed. Cf. NCV “will suddenly be ruined”; NLT “will be destroyed.”
[28:18] 59 tn The last word in the verse, בְּאֶחָת (bÿ’ekhat), means “in one [= at once (?)].” This may indicate a sudden fall, for falling “in one” (the literal meaning) makes no sense. W. McKane wishes to emend the text to read “into a pit” based on v. 10b (Proverbs [OTL], 622); this emendation is followed by NAB, NRSV.
[30:8] 60 tn The two words might form a hendiadys: “falsehood and lies” being equivalent to “complete deception.” The word שָׁוְא means “false; empty; vain; to a false purpose.” The second word means “word of lying,” thus “a lying word.” Taken separately they might refer to false intentions and false words.
[30:8] 61 tn The word חֹק (khoq) means “statute”; it is also used of a definite assignment in labor (Exod 5:14; Prov 31:15), or of a set portion of food (Gen 47:22). Here it refers to food that is the proper proportion for the speaker.
[30:8] 62 sn Agur requested an honest life (not deceitful) and a balanced life (not self-sufficient). The second request about his provision is clarified in v. 9.
