Amsal 4:5-7

4:5 Acquire wisdom, acquire understanding;

do not forget and do not turn aside from the words I speak. ¹ 

4:6 Do not forsake wisdom, ²  and she will protect you;

love her, and she will guard you.

4:7 Wisdom is supreme ³  – so ⁴  acquire wisdom,

and whatever you acquire, ⁵  acquire understanding! ⁶ 

Amsal 7:4

7:4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” ⁷ 

and call understanding a close relative,

Amsal 8:5

8:5 You who are naive, discern ⁸  wisdom!

And you fools, understand discernment! ⁹ 

Amsal 16:16

16:16 How much better it is to acquire ¹⁰  wisdom than gold;

to acquire understanding is more desirable ¹¹  than silver.

Amsal 17:16

17:16 Of what ¹²  use is money in the hand of a fool, ¹³ 

since he has no intention ¹⁴  of acquiring wisdom? ¹⁵ 

Ulangan 4:5-6

4:5 Look! I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the Lord my God told me to do, so that you might carry them out in ¹⁶  the land you are about to enter and possess. 4:6 So be sure to do them, because this will testify of your wise understanding ¹⁷  to the people who will learn of all these statutes and say, “Indeed, this great nation is a very wise ¹⁸  people.”

Ulangan 4:1

The Privileges of the Covenant

4:1 Now, Israel, pay attention to the statutes and ordinances ¹⁹  I am about to teach you, so that you might live and go on to enter and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, ²⁰  is giving you.

Kisah Para Rasul 3:9-12

3:9 All ²¹  the people saw him walking and praising God, 3:10 and they recognized him as the man who used to sit and ask for donations ²²  at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with astonishment and amazement ²³  at what had happened to him.

Peter Addresses the Crowd

3:11 While the man ²⁴  was hanging on to Peter and John, all the people, completely astounded, ran together to them in the covered walkway ²⁵  called Solomon’s Portico. ²⁶  3:12 When Peter saw this, he declared to the people, “Men of Israel, ²⁷  why are you amazed at this? Why ²⁸  do you stare at us as if we had made this man ²⁹  walk by our own power or piety?

Kisah Para Rasul 3:2

3:2 And a man lame ³⁰  from birth ³¹  was being carried up, who was placed at the temple gate called “the Beautiful Gate” every day ³²  so he could beg for money ³³  from those going into the temple courts. ³⁴ 

Titus 3:15

3:15 Everyone with me greets you. Greet those who love us in the faith. ³⁵  Grace be with you all. ³⁶ 

[4:5]  ¹ tn Heb “from the words of my mouth” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); TEV, CEV “what I say.”

[4:5]  sn The verse uses repetition for the imperative “acquire” to underscore the importance of getting wisdom; it then uses two verb forms for the one prepositional phrase to stress the warning.

[4:6]  ² tn Heb “her”; the 3rd person feminine singular referent is personified “wisdom,” which has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:7]  ³ tn The absolute and construct state of רֵאשִׁית (re’shit) are identical (BDB 912 s.v.). Some treat רֵאשִׁית חָכְמָה (re’shit khokhmah) as a genitive-construct phrase: “the beginning of wisdom” (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV). Others take רֵאשִׁית as an absolute functioning as predicate and חָכְמָה as the subject: “wisdom is the first/chief thing” (cf. KJV, ASV). The context here suggests the predicate.

[4:7]  ⁴ tn The term “so” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness and style.

[4:7]  ⁵ tn The noun קִנְיָן (qinyan) means “thing got or acquired; acquisition” (BDB 889 s.v.). With the preposition that denotes price, it means “with (or at the price of) all that you have acquired.” The point is that no price is too high for wisdom – give everything for it (K&D 16:108).

[4:7]  ⁶ tc The verse is not in the LXX; some textual critics delete the verse as an impossible gloss that interrupts vv. 6 and 8 (e.g., C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 88).

[7:4]  ⁷ sn The metaphor is meant to signify that the disciple will be closely related to and familiar with wisdom and understanding, as close as to a sibling. Wisdom will be personified in the next two chapters, and so referring to it as a sister in this chapter certainly prepares for that personification.

[8:5]  ⁸ tn The imperative of בִּין (bin) means “to understand; to discern.” The call is for the simple to understand what wisdom is, not just to gain it.

[8:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “heart.” The noun לֵב (lev, “heart”) often functions metonymically for wisdom, understanding, discernment.

[16:16]  ¹⁰ tn The form קְנֹה (qÿnoh) is an infinitive; the Greek version apparently took it as a participle, and the Latin as an imperative – both working with an unpointed קנה, the letter ה (he) being unexpected in the form if it is an infinitive construct (the parallel clause has קְנוֹת [qÿnot] for the infinitive, but the ancient versions also translate that as either a participle or an imperative).

[16:16]  ¹¹ tn The form is a Niphal participle, masculine singular. If it is modifying “understanding” it should be a feminine form. If it is to be translated, it would have to be rendered “and to acquire understanding is to be chosen more than silver” (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB). Many commentaries consider it superfluous. NIV and NCV simply have “to choose understanding rather than silver!”

[17:16]  ¹² tn Heb “why this?” The term זֶּה (zeh) is an enclitic use of the demonstrative pronoun for emphasis: “why ever” would this happen?

[17:16]  ¹³ sn The sense seems to be “What good is money” since what the fool needs cannot be bought? The verse is a rhetorical question stating that money would be wasted on a fool.

[17:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “there is no heart”; NASB “he has no (+ common TEV) sense”; NLT “has no heart for wisdom.”

[17:16]  ¹⁵ sn W. McKane envisions a situation where the fool comes to a sage with a fee in hand, supposing that he can acquire a career as a sage, and this gives rise to the biting comment here: Why does the fool have money in his hands? To buy wisdom when he has no brains? (Proverbs [OTL], 505).

[4:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “in the midst of” (so ASV).

[4:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “it is wisdom and understanding.”

[4:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “wise and understanding.”

[4:1]  ¹⁹ tn These technical Hebrew terms (חֻקִּים [khuqqim] and מִשְׁפָּטִים [mishpatim]) occur repeatedly throughout the Book of Deuteronomy to describe the covenant stipulations to which Israel had been called to subscribe (see, in this chapter alone, vv. 1, 5, 6, 8). The word חֻקִּים derives from the verb חֹק (khoq, “to inscribe; to carve”) and מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishpatim) from שָׁפַט (shafat, “to judge”). They are virtually synonymous and are used interchangeably in Deuteronomy.

[4:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 31, 37).

[3:9]  ²¹ tn Grk “And all.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[3:10]  ²² tn Grk “alms,” but this term is not in common use today, so the closest modern equivalent, “donations,” is used instead. The idea is that of a donation to charity.

[3:10]  ²³ sn Amazement is a frequent response to miracles of Jesus or the apostles. These took the ancients by as much surprise as they would people today. But in terms of response to what God is doing, amazement does not equal faith (Luke 4:36; 5:9, 26; 7:16).

[3:11]  ²⁴ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:11]  ²⁵ tn Or “portico,” “colonnade”; Grk “stoa.” The translation “covered walkway” (a descriptive translation) was used here because the architectural term “portico” or “colonnade” is less familiar. However, the more technical term “portico” was retained in the actual name that follows.

[3:11]  ²⁶ sn Solomon’s Portico was a covered walkway formed by rows of columns supporting a roof and open on the inner side facing the center of the temple complex. It was located on the east side of the temple (Josephus, Ant. 15.11.3-5 [15.391-420], 20.9.7 [20.221]) and was a place of commerce and conversation.

[3:12]  ²⁷ tn Or perhaps “People of Israel,” since this was taking place in Solomon’s Portico and women may have been present. The Greek ἄνδρες ᾿Ισραηλῖται (andre" Israhlitai) used in the plural would normally mean “men, gentlemen” (BDAG 79 s.v. ἀνήρ 1.a).

[3:12]  ²⁸ tn Grk “or why.”

[3:12]  ²⁹ tn Grk “him”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:2]  ³⁰ tn Or “crippled.”

[3:2]  ³¹ tn Grk “from his mother’s womb.”

[3:2]  ³² tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase.

[3:2]  ³³ tn Grk “alms.” The term “alms” is not in common use today, so what the man expected, “money,” is used in the translation instead. The idea is that of money given as a gift to someone who was poor. Giving alms was viewed as honorable in Judaism (Tob 1:3, 16; 12:8-9; m. Pe’ah 1:1). See also Luke 11:41; 12:33; Acts 9:36; 10:2, 4, 31; 24:17.

[3:2]  ³⁴ tn Grk “the temple.” This is actually a reference to the courts surrounding the temple proper, and has been translated accordingly.

[3:2]  sn Into the temple courts. The exact location of this incident is debated. The ‘Beautiful Gate’ referred either to the Nicanor Gate (which led from the Court of the Gentiles into the Court of Women) or the Shushan Gate at the eastern wall.

[3:15]  ³⁵ tn Or “faithfully.”

[3:15]  ³⁶ tc Most witnesses (א² D¹ F G H Ψ 0278 Ï lat sy bo) conclude this letter with ἀμήν (amhn, “amen”). Such a conclusion is routinely added by scribes to NT books because a few of these books originally had such an ending (cf. Rom 16:27; Gal 6:18; Jude 25). A majority of Greek witnesses have the concluding ἀμήν in every NT book except Acts, James, and 3 John (and even in these books, ἀμήν is found in some witnesses). It is thus a predictable variant. Further, early and excellent witnesses (א* A C D* 048 33 81 1739 1881 sa) lack the particle, rendering the omission the preferred reading.