Amsal 5:21

5:21 For the ways of a person ¹  are in front of the Lord’s eyes,

and the Lord ²  weighs ³  all that person’s ⁴  paths.

Amsal 12:19

12:19 The one who tells the truth ⁵  will endure forever,

but the one who lies ⁶  will last only for a moment. ⁷ 

Amsal 15:3

15:3 The eyes of the Lord ⁸  are in every place,

keeping watch ⁹  on those who are evil and those who are good.

Amsal 20:8

20:8 A king sitting on the throne to judge ¹⁰ 

separates out ¹¹  all evil with his eyes. ¹² 

Amsal 23:26

23:26 Give me your heart, my son, ¹³ 

and let your eyes observe my ways;

Amsal 27:20

27:20 As ¹⁴  Death and Destruction are never satisfied, ¹⁵ 

so the eyes of a person ¹⁶  are never satisfied. ¹⁷ 

[5:21]  ¹ tn Heb “man.”

[5:21]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:21]  ³ tn BDB 814 s.v. פָּלַס 2 suggests that the participle מְפַּלֵּס (mÿpalles) means “to make level [or, straight].” As one’s ways are in front of the eyes of the Lord, they become straight or right. It could be translated “weighs” since it is a denominative from the noun for “balance, scale”; the Lord weighs or examines the actions.

[5:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “all his”; the referent (the person mentioned in the first half of the verse) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “a lip of truth.” The genitive אֱמֶת (’emet, “truth”) functions as an attributive adjective: “truthful lip.” The term שְׂפַת (sÿfat, “lip”) functions as a synecdoche of part (= lip) for the whole (= person): “truthful person.” The contrast is between “the lip of truth” and the “tongue of lying.”

[12:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “a tongue of deceit.” The genitive שָׁקֶר (shaqer, “deceit”) functions as an attributive genitive. The noun לָשׁוֹן (lashon, “tongue”) functions as a synecdoche of part (= tongue) for the whole (= person): “lying person.”

[12:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “while I would twinkle.” This expression is an idiom meaning “only for a moment.” The twinkling of the eye, the slightest movement, signals the brevity of the life of a lie (hyperbole). But truth will be established (תִּכּוֹן, tikon), that is, be made firm and endure.

[15:3]  ⁸ sn The proverb uses anthropomorphic language to describe God’s exacting and evaluating knowledge of all people.

[15:3]  ⁹ tn The form צֹפוֹת (tsofot, “watching”) is a feminine plural participle agreeing with “eyes.” God’s watching eyes comfort good people but convict evil.

[20:8]  ¹⁰ tn The infinitive construct is דִּין; it indicates purpose, “to judge” (so NIV, NCV) even though it does not have the preposition with it.

[20:8]  ¹¹ tn The second line uses the image of winnowing (cf. NIV, NRSV) to state that the king’s judgment removes evil from the realm. The verb form is מִזָרֶה (mÿzareh), the Piel participle. It has been translated “to sift; to winnow; to scatter” and “to separate” – i.e., separate out evil from the land. The text is saying that a just government roots out evil (cf. NAB “dispels all evil”), but few governments have been consistently just.

[20:8]  ¹² sn The phrase with his eyes indicates that the king will closely examine or look into all the cases that come before him.

[23:26]  ¹³ tn Heb “my son”; the reference to a “son” is retained in the translation here because in the following lines the advice is to avoid women who are prostitutes.

[27:20]  ¹⁴ tn The term “as” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation in light of the analogy.

[27:20]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ 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.