Amsal 3:29

3:29 Do not plot ¹  evil against your neighbor

when ²  he dwells by you unsuspectingly.

Amsal 4:23-24

4:23 Guard your heart with all vigilance, ³ 

for from it are the sources ⁴  of life.

4:24 Remove perverse speech ⁵  from your mouth; ⁶ 

keep devious talk far from your lips. ⁷ 

Amsal 8:8

8:8 All the words of my mouth are righteous; ⁸ 

there is nothing in them twisted ⁹  or crooked.

Amsal 24:20

24:20 for the evil person has no future, ¹⁰ 

and the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished. ¹¹ 

Amsal 31:18

31:18 She knows ¹²  that her merchandise is good,

and her lamp ¹³  does not go out in the night.

Amsal 31:27

31:27 She watches over ¹⁴  the ways of her household,

and does not eat the bread of idleness. ¹⁵ 

[3:29]  ¹ sn The verb חָרַשׁ (kharash) means “to cut in; to engrave; to plough; to devise.” The idea of plotting is metaphorical for working, practicing or fabricating (BDB 360 s.v.).

[3:29]  ² tn The vav (ו) prefixed to the pronoun introduces a disjunctive circumstantial clause: “when….”

[4:23]  ³ tn Heb “more than all guarding.” This idiom means “with all vigilance.” The construction uses the preposition מִן (min) to express “above; beyond,” the word “all” and the noun “prison; guard; act of guarding.” The latter is the use here (BDB 1038 s.v. מִשְׁמָר).

[4:23]  ⁴ sn The word תּוֹצְאוֹת (tots’ot, from יָצָא, yatsa’) means “outgoings; extremities; sources.” It is used here for starting points, like a fountainhead, and so the translation “sources” works well.

[4:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “crookedness.” The noun עִקְּשׁוּת (’iqqÿshut) refers to what is morally twisted or perverted. Here it refers to things that are said (cf. NAB “dishonest talk”; NRSV “crooked speech”). The term “mouth” functions as a metonymy of cause for perverse speech. Such perverse talking could be subtle or blatant.

[4:24]  ⁶ tn Heb “crookedness of mouth.”

[4:24]  ⁷ tn Heb “deviousness of lips put far from you.”

[8:8]  ⁸ tn The phrase could be rendered with an understood ellipsis: “all the words of my mouth [are said] in righteousness”; or the preposition could be interpreted as a beth essentiae: “all the words of my mouth are righteousness.”

[8:8]  ⁹ sn The verb פָּתַל (patal) means “to twist.” In the Niphal it means “to wrestle” (to twist oneself). It was used in Gen 30:8 for the naming of Naphtali, with the motivation for the name from this verb: “with great struggling.” Here it describes speech that is twisted. It is a synonym for the next word, which means “twisted; crooked; perverse.”

[24:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “there is no end [i.e., future] for the evil.”

[24:20]  ¹¹ sn The saying warns against envying the wicked; v. 19 provides the instruction, and v. 20 the motivation. The motivation is that there is no future hope for them – nothing to envy, or as C. H. Toy explains, there will be no good outcome for their lives (Proverbs [ICC], 449). They will die suddenly, as the implied comparison with the lamp being snuffed out signifies.

[31:18]  ¹² tn The first word of the ninth line begins with ט (tet), the ninth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[31:18]  sn This is the word for “taste.” It means her opinion or perception, what she has learned by experience and therefore seems right.

[31:18]  ¹³ sn The line may be taken literally to mean that she is industrious throughout the night (“burning the midnight oil”) when she must in order to follow through a business deal (W. McKane, Proverbs [OTL], 668); cf. TEV. But the line could also be taken figuratively, comparing “her light” to the prosperity of her household – her whole life – which continues night and day.

[31:27]  ¹⁴ tn The first word of the eighteenth line begins with צ (tsade), the eighteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[31:27]  ¹⁵ sn The expression bread of idleness refers to food that is gained through idleness, perhaps given or provided for her. In the description of the passage one could conclude that this woman did not have to do everything she did; and this line affirms that even though she is well off, she will eat the bread of her industrious activity.