Although Proverbs, in contrast to Job and Qohelet, strikes certain recurrent notes of traditional piety and evinces great confidence in a rational moral order that dependably produces concrete rewards for virtue and wisdom, it is in some ways, like Job and Qohelet, not altogether a likely book for inclusion in the canon. The Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 30B) in fact brackets Proverbs with Qohelet as a text that perhaps might have been excluded from the canon—in particular because it contains contradictory assertions. The sequence of verses 4 and 5 in chapter 26 is a vivid case in point: “Do not answer a dolt by his folly / lest you, too, be like him. /Answer the dolt by his folly, / lest he seem wise in his own eyes.” What, then, the earnest reader may wonder, is one to do about answering a dolt? It is probably misguided to argue for a dialectic or subtly complementary relationship between these two admonitions. The contradiction between them stems from the anthological character of the book: the two sayings have been culled either from folk-tradition or from the verbal repertory of Wisdom schools and have been set in immediate sequence by the anthologist because of the identical wording—first in the negative and then in the positive—of the initial clause of each saying.
The Book of Proverbs is not merely an anthology but an anthology of anthologies. It is made up of six discrete units, each marked editorially as such at the beginning, with notable differences of emphasis and style among the units. chapters 1–9 form a kind of general prologue to the subject of the instruction of wisdom. Michael V. Fox, in his two indispensable Proverbs volumes in the Anchor Bible Series, argues persuasively that this first unit was the last one composed, either in the Persian period or in the Hellenistic period. It is strikingly different from the collections of one-line, two-verset proverbs that follow in deploying poems that extend to all or a good part of a chapter. These include the vivid narrative about the seductress that takes up chapter 7 and the allegorical representation of Lady Wisdom in chapter 8 and of the contrasting figures of Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly in chapter 9. The recurring theme in this initial unit that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom also sets it apart from the subsequent collections, in which wisdom is more typically thought of without theological trappings as a transmissible human craft. Finally, the prominence here of the Mentor and the inexperienced youth he seeks to instruct recedes or disappears as the book moves on to the one-line proverbs.
The second grouping, introduced like the first with the phrase “the proverbs of Solomon,” runs from the beginning of chapter 10 to 22:Many scholars think that this double ascription of the book to Solomon, celebrated in 1 Kings 5:12 for his prodigious production of proverbs, may have encouraged its inclusion in the canon, though that claim is hard to assess. In the one-line proverb, the symmetrical logic of poetic parallelism predominates, with most of the proverbs exhibiting either neatly matching statements in the two versets or emphatic antitheses. After this unit, which is the longest collection in the anthology of anthologies, a short unit begins that is marked with the exhortation “Bend your ear and hear the words of the wise,” the phrase “the words of the wise” evidently serving as a kind of title. This grouping provides the most vivid evidence of the international character of Wisdom literature because a large part of it, as scholars have long recognized, is a recasting of the Instruction of Amenemope, a second-millennium B.C.E. Egyptian text, which may have reached the Hebrew writer through the mediation of an Aramaic version. After this, 24:23 begins with the declaration, “These, too, are from the wise,” which indicates a new source, of which perhaps only a fragment is included because it ends or breaks off after eleven verses.
The first verse of chapter 25 then provides a valuable historical clue about the editorial process of these collections: “These, too, are the proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah transcribed.” Hezekiah reigned in Jerusalem in the late decades of the eighth century B.C.E. The men of Hezekiah would have been court scribes, and in fact there is a good deal of emphasis in this unit, which runs to the end of chapter 29, on kings and how one should comport oneself in their presence. The verb “transcribed,” heʿetiqu, does not imply original composition but rather an activity such as collating and copying or transferring from another source, which means that the original formulation of at least some of these proverbs might have occurred generations, perhaps even quite a few generations, before the time of Hezekiah, however unlikely the ascription to Solomon.
Finally, chapters 30 and 31 comprise, as Fox aptly calls them, a series of four “appendices” to the book proper. Each is quite different in style and emphasis from everything that precedes it in the completed anthology, and though the appendices are clearly drawn from different literary sources, there is no confident way of concluding whether they are later sources or just exotic ones. The first appendix, 30:1–14, is “The words of Agur, son of Yaqeh,” a figure about whom nothing is known. The style is vatic, and the idea that God alone possesses wisdom runs counter to the prevailing notion in the rest of the book of wisdom as a teachable craft. The second appendix (30:15–33) is made up of a series of riddling epigrams cast in a three-four numerical pattern (“Three things are there that are not sated, / four that do not say, ‘Enough!’ ”) occasionally found elsewhere in biblical poetry and ultimately going back to Canaanite poetic style. The third appendix, 31:1–9, “The words of Lemuel, king of Massa,” is a set of instructions of a queen mother to her royal son. At the very end of the book (31:10–31), we have an alphabetic acrostic poem celebrating the ideal wife—an interesting editorial choice for the conclusion of a book that has featured male mentors instructing young men and has repeatedly warned against seductresses and complained of shrewish wives.
The Book of Proverbs, then, is by no means cut from whole cloth, and consequently generalizations about its outlook and literary character will not hold for all parts of the anthology. By and large, the underlying conception of wisdom is thoroughly pragmatic, and, in keeping with the characteristic direction of Wisdom literature, it does not reflect particular Israelite interests. The recurring term torah does not refer to any divinely inspired text but simply means “teaching” or “instruction” and is closely coordinated with the constantly reiterated musar, “reproof” or “discipline.” This basically untheological orientation, in which neither revelation nor covenant has any role, might conceivably have been another potential obstacle to the book’s inclusion in the canon that was nevertheless over-come by the rabbinic sages. (The one brief component of the anthology that does sound fully “canonical” in this regard is Agur’s pious poem exalting God’s transcendent greatness and affirming the nullity of human wisdom.)
The book is poetry from end to end, but what kind of poetry is it? In line with its composite nature, it is not the same in all its segments. The acrostic poem at the end praising the “worthy woman” is a rapid sequence of narrative vignettes exhibiting the good woman in a chain of energetic actions on behalf of her household, acquiring flax and wool and weaving them, rising before daybreak to set out on her rounds of commerce, and so forth. The poems of the first nine chapters abound in incipiently narrative developments—Lady Wisdom calling out from the heights to invite the throngs to attend to her instruction, the Mentor spelling out step by step the disasters to which the Stranger Woman (presumably, a lascivious married woman) will lead a young man, the antithetical evocation in an extended metaphor of the delights of conjugal love.
The large central core of the book, however, from chapter 10 to the end of chapter 29, which gathers together one-line proverbs from a variety of sources, is the part of the book in which the poetry is liable to pose the greatest difficulties for modern readers. The one-line proverbs are either didactic admonitions or, somewhat less frequently, observations about social and ethical behavior. Some of the sayings in the second category are quite shrewd and evince lively satiric perceptions. The admonitions, on the other hand, show a good deal of predictability, founded as they are on what the writers assume to be tried-and-true principles for guiding a person through life. As a result, the poetry is sometimes boilerplate language, a rehearsal of traditional formulas. This is a limitation that the author of Job, perhaps the most original of biblical poets, obviously noticed, putting in the mouths of the three friends many complacent pronouncements about the rightness of the moral order that sound like this line from Proverbs (10:3): “The LORD will not make the righteous man hunger, / but He rebuffs the desire of the wicked.” Poetry in all cultures serves a mnemonic function—in systems that have rhyme, the rhyme helps you remember the line that comes after its rhyming counterpart. In the semantic parallelism of biblical poetry, the match in meaning (and often in rhythm and syntax) helps you remember the second verset after the first. If there were in fact Wisdom schools in ancient Israel, it is easy enough to imagine how the formulation of ethical and pragmatic principles in poetry helped students to memorize them. Thus, the line “Cheating scales are the LORD’s loathing, / and a true weight-stone His pleasure” (11:1) occurs several times with minor variations. Unlike the sundry claims about the righteous and the wicked, it is unassailable as an ethical principle. One would hardly call it great poetry, but the poetic parallelism does serve to inscribe the saying in memory with the aim of being a kind of ethical prophylaxis: should you ever be tempted to enhance your profits in a sale of goods by using a crooked scale or an underweight marked stone, this saying is meant to come to mind and dissuade you.
Many other proverbs are grounded not in ethics but in purely prudential considerations, such as the reiterated exhortations not to give your bond for someone you don’t know—for example, “He will surely be shattered who gives bond for a stranger, / but he who hates offering pledge is secure” (11:15). Here, too, the rather mechanical parallelism is an aid to memory, serving a prophylactic function in the economic sphere rather than in the ethical realm. The least interesting of the proverbs, as the one just cited may suggest, amount to poetic formulations of truisms. It seems scarcely necessary, for example, to be reminded, as we are by several different proverbs, that warfare needs to be conducted with considered strategy and expert military advisors, or that a person too lazy to provide for himself will end up in want.
This last instance of the lazy man, however, also illustrates how poetry in the Book of Proverbs often goes beyond a purely mnemonic function to serve as a vehicle of enlivening perception. Within the tight formal constraints of the one-line aphorism, dynamic and revelatory relationships emerge between the two halves of the line, generating what I have elsewhere called a poetry of wit. (The frequent celebrations in the book of the power of language invite from the audience a fine attentiveness to the play of language in the poetry.) Very often in biblical poetry, the second verset does not simply echo the first verset, as it does in the three lines quoted above, but instead introduces some sort of heightening or focusing development of it, which in Proverbs frequently is a small surprise or discovery. “A door turns on its hinge, / and a sluggard on his bed” (26:14). Here, as in many other proverbs, the relation between the first verset and the second is that of a riddle to its solution. That is, the assertion in the first half of the line is either so obvious (of course, a door turns on its hinge) that one wonders why it needs to be said at all, or it is perplexing, which makes one wonder for a different reason. The second half of the line then provides a sharply focused (and sometimes satirical) explanation. In this instance, the sluggard is revealed turning back and forth on his bed and getting nowhere, like the door, while the comparison also invites us to think of the contrast between people going in and out of the doorway as the door opens and closes and the sluggard unwilling to move from his bed. Here is a different riddle-proverb about the lazy man, in which the riddling first verset is enigmatic, to be explained in the second verset: “Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, / thus the sluggard to those who send him” (10:26). In formulations of this sort, the riddle form of the line is especially prominent: What is as noxious or irritating as vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes?—a lazy man whom you have the misfortune to use on an errand. A third proverb on the sluggard illustrates the lively variety of the riddle form. The line begins, “The sluggard hides his hand in the dish.” This action sounds bizarre, and one wonders why anyone would want to do such a thing. Then the second half of the line explains, “he won’t even bring it up to his mouth” (19:24). This is, of course, an extravagant and amusing satiric hyperbole: the man is so lazy that, having plunged his hand into the dish, he is incapable of exerting the effort required to bring the food to his mouth. Thus, the fantastically exaggerated image becomes a representation of how laziness leads to a failure to provide for one’s own basic needs, a notion couched in more realistic terms, such as having nothing to harvest when crops are not planted, in other proverbs.
The satiric perspective, to round out this sampling of proverbs on the sluggard, is not limited to riddling but can be brought to bear through a technique of miniaturist caricature: “The sluggard said, ‘A lion’s outside / in the square. I shall be murdered!’” (22:13). These words, of course, are a trumped-up excuse for his not leaving his house (or, perhaps, his bed): in the wonderful extravagance of the dialogue that the poet puts in the mouth of the sluggard, he fears that the fictitious lion prowling in the streets threatens not to devour but to murder him, as though it were a malevolent assassin and not merely a beast of prey.
Many of the proverbs set out an antithesis between the first verset and the second, and the tight confines of the one-line aphorism often generate a powerful energy of assertion in the antithesis. Thus: “A worthy woman is her husband’s crown, / but like rot in his bones a shameful wife” (12:4). The first verset praising the good wife verges on platitude, but then the antithetical second verset produces a small shock: a crown is a noble thing yet also an external ornament (perhaps an allusion to the fortunate husband’s enhanced reputation); rot in the bones is something internal, and devastating. This whole effect is strongly reinforced by the antithetical chiasm: worthy woman (a), crown (b), bone-rot (b’), shaming woman (a’). Sometimes, the contrasting second verset takes on a surprising vividness against the foil of the first verset: “Drawn-out longing sickens the heart, / but desire come true is a tree of life” (13:12). By itself, the second clause might seem a bland truism, but after the sickening of the heart of unfulfilled desire, it conveys a strong sense of how sustaining it is to have one’s longings consummated. In some antithetical proverbs, there is also narrative development from the first verset to the second: “Bread got through fraud may be sweet to a man, / but in the end it fills his mouth with gravel” (20:17). The idea that pleasures reaped through wrongful acts will eventually be followed by a comeuppance for the wrongdoer is a cliché of Wisdom literature. Here, however, the powerfully concrete image of delectable food that turns into a mouthful of gravel endows the familiar idea with poetic force.
A traditional proverb pattern that occurs with some frequency in the collection is “better x” (first verset) “than y” (second verset). This is actually a variation on the antithetically structured line and similarly draws its expressive power from the bold juxtaposition of opposites. Here are two characteristic examples: “Better a meal of greens where there is love / than a fatted ox where there is hatred” (15:17) and “Better a dry crust with tranquillity / than a house filled with feasting and quarrel” (17:1). Although some of these proverbs may give the impression of the rehearsal of rote learning, many others—perhaps the two instances just cited among them—are arresting not just because of the concise poetic wit but also because they appear to derive from shrewd and considered reflection on moral behavior and human nature and sometimes from introspection as well. If some of these maxims may seem too pat, one is startled to come across this proverb: “The heart knows its own bitterness, / and in its joy no stranger mingles” (14:10). The book as a whole, after all, works on the assumption that knowledge and experience are eminently transmissible and teachable and that everyone draws on the same fund of set moral principles. In this instance, however, the anthologists have included a very different perception—that each person’s experience is ultimately incommensurable, that one’s inward sorrows and delights have no adequate reflection in the lexicon of the social realm. Occasionally, despite the general adherence of the collection to moral certitude, one encounters a proverb that registers the stubborn ambiguity of human experience, as in this densely packed line: “Like water face to face / thus the heart of man to man” (27:19). The first verset evidently means to say that water gives back a person his own reflected image, and so the second verset would seem to assert that a man may know the heart of another by pondering what is in his own heart. But water, after all, is an unstable mirror, its surface liable to be troubled by wind or tide, its chromatic layers darkening or transforming the image, and hence the reflection of heart to heart may be a tricky or undependable business.
Rendering these pithy Hebrew maxims in English presents a special challenge. The distinctive lexical stamp of the Book of Proverbs is marked by its use of a set of overlapping terms for wisdom on the one hand and for foolishness or stupidity on the other. Michael V. Fox has exerted heroic scholarly effort to make nice distinctions among these approximate synonyms, but it is doubtful that the precise semantic contours of each of the recurring terms can be recovered with much confidence. The general term for wisdom is ḥokhmah, which has a practical orientation, being used in other contexts for the “wise” application of a craft by a skilled worker, but which in chapters 8 and 9 is given cosmic resonance. Three other terms, ʿormah, mezimah, and taḥbulah, usually have connotations of calculation, shrewdness, or cunning, here put in a positive light. Of the sundry terms for the lack of wisdom, the one that has a clear connotation is peti, represented in this translation as “dupe,” because it derives from a verbal root associated with seduction and hence suggests gullibility. By and large, the present translation uses the same English equivalent for each member of these two clusters of related terms, although there are moments when the immediate context has necessitated abandoning consistency.
The more pervasive challenge to the translator of Proverbs is that the expressive vigor of these sayings depends to such a large degree on their wonderful compactness, an effect reinforced by sound-play (alliteration, assonance, an occasional ad hoc internal rhyme). Most of this sound-play inevitably disappears in the English, though some efforts have been made in this version to reproduce it, at least approximately. Because of the fundamental structural difference between biblical Hebrew and modern English, it often takes eight to ten words to say in English what is expressed in four Hebrew words. There is no escape from this linguistic quandary, but I have sought to narrow the gap between the two languages by avoiding (with just a few exceptions) polysyllabic words, by trying wherever possible to keep the number of accents—typically, three per verset—close to that in the Hebrew, and by reproducing something of the compression of formulation of the Hebrew without resort to explanatory or paraphrastic maneuvers in the translation. However imperfect the results, I would hope these procedures will bring readers closer than do earlier English versions to the concise forcefulness of the Hebrew. The speed, the occasional abruptness, the gnomic character of the original seem worth emulating—hence renderings such as “like water face to face / so the heart of man to man.”
1The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel.
2To know wisdom and reproof,
to understand discerning maxims.
3To accept the reproof of insight,
righteousness, justice, and uprightness.
4To give shrewdness to the simple,
to a lad, knowledge and cunning.
5Let the wise man hear and gain learning,
and the discerning acquire designs.
6To understand proverbs and adages,
the words of the wise and their riddles.
7The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.
Wisdom and reproof dolts despise.
8Hear, my son, your father’s reproof,
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
9For they are a garland of grace on your head
and a necklace round your throat.
10My son, should offenders seduce you,
11Should they say,
“Go with us, let us lie in wait for blood,
stalk the innocent for no reason.
12Let us swallow them live like Sheol,
and the blameless like those gone down to the Pit.
13All precious treasure we shall find,
we shall fill our houses with loot.
14Your lot you should throw in with us,
15My son, do not go on a road with them,
hold back your foot from their path.
16For their feet run to evil,
and they hurry to shed blood.
17For the net is spread out for no reason
in the eyes of each wingèd thing.
18Yet they lie in wait for their own blood,
they lurk for their own lives.
19Thus are the ways of all who chase gain,
its possessor’s life it will take.
20Wisdom cries out in the streets,
in the squares she lifts her voice.
21At the bustling crossroads she calls,
at the entrance to the town’s gate says her sayings:
22How long, dupes, will you love being duped,
and scoffers lust scoffing,
and fools hate knowledge?
23Turn back to my rebuke.
Look, I would pour out my spirit to you,
I would make my words known with you.
24Because I called and you resisted,
I reached out my hand and none paid heed,
25and you flung aside all my counsel,
and you did not want my rebuke.
26I, too, shall laugh at your ruin,
I shall mock when what you feared comes,
27when what you feared comes like disaster,
and your ruin like a whirlwind descends,
when straits and distress come upon you.
28Then they will call me and I shall not answer,
they will seek me and they will not find me.
29Because they have hated knowledge,
and the LORD’s fear they did not choose.
30They did not want my counsel,
they spurned all my rebuke.
31And they ate from the fruit of their way,
and from their own counsels they were sated.
32For the waywardness of dupes will kill them
and the smugness of fools will destroy them.
33But who heeds me will dwell secure,
and tranquil from the fear of harm.
CHAPTER 1 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel. This editorial headnote for the book follows the Late Biblical practice of ascribing texts to famous figures from the national past. In this case, the ascription was obviously encouraged by the legendary wisdom reported of Solomon in 1 Kings, including his having composed many proverbs. In fact, the collections of sayings and longer poems assembled in the book were written in all probability centuries after Solomon, with the earliest stratum going back, perhaps, to the eighth century B.C.E., although some individual proverbs may well have been older.
proverbs. The Hebrew mishley—which actually means “proverbs of “—became the prevalent title for the book in Jewish tradition. The term, which suggests some sort of artful expression, usually poetic, has no entirely satisfactory English equivalent because it variously means “proverb,” “parable,” “poetic theme,” “rhapsodic utterance.”
2. To know wisdom and reproof. The series of infinitive phrases, which runs from here to the end of verse 4 and is picked up again in verse 6, is quite untypical of literary syntax in the Bible. It is presumably used because it lays out an agenda for the book, with everything from the beginning through verse 9 constituting a formal prelude to the book proper. “Reproof,” musar, and the matching term “rebuke,” tokheḥah (verses 23,25, and 30), are prominently featured because the pedagogical assumption of the book is that the unsuspecting young need to be warned of life’s dangers and scolded for their susceptibility to temptation—a process that will be repeatedly evident, beginning here in verses 10–19.
4. shrewdness … / cunning. This book uses in a positive sense a cluster of terms—“designs” in the next verse belongs to the cluster—that in other contexts have a connotation of deviousness and scheming. (“Shrewdness,” ʿormah, for example, is the word used for the primeval serpent in Genesis 3:1.) Such usage fits in with the pragmatic curriculum of Proverbs. Intelligence of the most practical sort, involving an alertness to potential deceptions and seductions, is seen as an indispensable tool for the safe, satisfying, and ethical life, and a fool is repeatedly thought of as a dupe.
6. riddles. This is the same term, ḥidah, that is used in the Samson story. Some of the one-line proverbs, as we shall see, are actually cast as riddles, with the first verset posing the riddle and the second verset the solution. The burden of the entire line is that fine attentiveness is required to take in fully the words of the wise, and that idea is borne out by the compressed wit exhibited in many of the proverbs.
7. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge. This summarizing statement reflects a distinctive Israelite emphasis not evident in analogous Wisdom texts in Egypt and Mesopotamia.
8. Hear, my son. The persona of the Mentor now emerges, addressing his inexperienced disciple—as he will repeatedly do later—as “son,” in keeping with the precedent of Egyptian Wisdom writings.
10. offenders. One immediately sees why the traditional rendering of ḥataʾim as “sinners,” perpetuated in many modern translations, is not quite right. These are offenders in the strict criminal sense, a gang of violent thugs. This monitory poem runs to the end of verse 19, followed by Wisdom’s first speech, which takes up fourteen verses until the end of the chapter. Continuous poems of roughly this length constitute the first nine-chapter unit of the book. Then there is a shift to one-line proverbs.
do not be willing. The two-word Hebrew verset looks textually suspect, reflecting a rhythmic imbalance with the first verset.
11. Should they say. This formula for introducing speech, as elsewhere in biblical poetry, seems to be extrametrical.
blood, / innocent. These two terms, distributed between the two versets, are, as Michael V. Fox neatly observes, a breakup of a bound collocation, “blood of the innocent,” dam naqi.
12. swallow them live like Sheol. The implication of “blood” in the previous line is spelled out: the thugs’ plan is to murder their victims and then seize their wealth.
14. one purse we all shall have. The thugs appeal to the young man not only on the basis of profit (“precious treasure”) to be had but also for the camaraderie in crime that they offer.
15. road / path. Though these terms and related synonyms are a figure for a way of behavior, they are also literal here: the bandits want to draw the young man with them on a road where they will lie in wait for victims.
17. For the net is spread out for no reason. The unwitting birds do not imagine that the fowlers’ net spread below them is meant to entrap them.
18. Yet they lie in wait for their own blood. Most interpreters, seeing an implied analogy between the unwitting birds and the naïve young drawn into crime, understand this to mean that the criminals do not imagine that they will be caught by the dire consequences of their own crime, do not realize that they are their own ambushers. This would be in keeping with an idea stressed in Proverbs—and vehemently rejected in Job—that there is a built-in moral mechanism that leads from crime to disaster for its perpetrators. Similarly in the next verse, ill-gotten gain is said to take “its possessor’s life.”
20. Wisdom cries out in the streets. Lady Wisdom, an important personage in the first large unit of Proverbs, is as close to an allegorical figure as the Hebrew Bible comes. Attempts to derive her from the Greek Sophia are questionable, and it is by no means clear that any of this book was written as late as the Hellenistic period. Female figures as symbols of nations—most notably, Zion—are common in biblical literature, but not as embodiments of abstractions. Perhaps the centrality of the quality of wisdom in this poetic book led to a feminine personification. The Hebrew ḥokhmah is a feminine noun, but here it appears in a plural form, ḥokhmot, construed grammatically as a singular (like Behemoth in Job). This could be a plural of intensification or an archaic form.
21. bustling crossroads. This translation follows a proposal by Fox. The literal sense is “chief [or head] of the bustlings,” which he plausibly construes as an ellipsis.
25. flung aside. The verb is elsewhere used for unbinding the hair, so it literally means something like to put in disarray.
27. straits and distress. The Hebrew similarly features alliteration, tsarah umetsukah.
31. ate from the fruit of their way. As in verses 18 and 19, the idea is that they had to taste the bitter consequences of their own evil acts.
from their own counsels they were sated. This verset extends the idea of eating the dire consequences of crime. “Counsels,” moʿetsot, antithetically picks up the “counsel” of Wisdom (verse 30) that was spurned, the two words here being different noun formations from the same root.
33. who heeds me will dwell secure. Again and again, Proverbs pushes the notion that there is a pragmatic payoff for following the precepts of wisdom: those who do so will enjoy untroubled lives, secure from harm.
1My son, if you take up my sayings,
and my commands you store within you,
2to make your ear hearken to wisdom,
incline your heart to discernment,
3for if you call out to understanding,
raise your voice to discernment,
4if you seek it like silver,
search for it like treasure,
5then will you understand the LORD’s fear,
and you will find the knowledge of God.
6For the LORD gives wisdom,
from His mouth, discerning knowledge.
7He stores for the upright prudence,
a shield to those who walk blameless,
8to keep the paths of justice
and He watches the way of His faithful.
9Then you will understand righteousness, justice,
and uprightness, each pathway of good.
10For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge be sweet to your palate.
11Cunning will watch over you,
discernment will keep you,
12to save you from a way of evil,
from a man who speaks perversely.
13They forsake the paths of uprightness
to go in the ways of darkness,
14they rejoice to do evil,
delight in evil’s perverseness,
15whose paths are crooked,
and twisted in their pathways.
16To save you from a stranger-woman,
from a smooth-talking alien woman,
17who forsakes the guide of her youth
and the pact of her God forgets.
18For her house leads down to death
and to the shades, her pathways.
19All who come to her will not return,
and will not attain the paths of life.
20So that you walk in the way of the good,
and the paths of the just you keep.
21For the upright will dwell on earth
and the blameless survive on it.
22But the wicked are cut off from the earth,
and traitors torn away from it.
CHAPTER 2 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. take up my sayings. Here, as elsewhere, the Mentor presents himself as an authoritative figure who is the dependable source of wisdom for his as yet untutored disciple.
5. then will you understand the LORD’s fear. Since the fear of the LORD is represented definitionally as the beginning of wisdom, the converse is also true: a person, by making a strenuous and sincere effort to discover wisdom, will come to understand what fear of the LORD is, for He (verse 6) is the one who ultimately imparts all wisdom.
7. a shield. The notion that wisdom protects one from mishaps is of a piece with the general conception of wisdom’s possessing pragmatic advantages.
10. For wisdom will enter your heart. Here and above, in verse 2, the English reader should recall that the heart is conceived as the seat of understanding (rather like “mind”), although it also is associated with emotion.
11. Cunning. See the comment on 1:4. It may be useful to keep in mind that “cunning” in English is not always a negative term. Consider, for example, such usages as “cunning design.”
12. perversely. The Hebrew tahapukhot suggests things topsy-turvy, upended from their proper place. Proverbs repeatedly uses antithetical spatial metaphors for the good and the evil life. The former is a straight way; the latter is perverse, topsy-turvy, or, as in verse 15, crooked and twisted.
13. They forsake the paths of uprightness. The Hebrew here and in the next verse uses a plural participial form: “forsaking the paths.” This entire first piece of admonition to the young man is quite general, warning him to stay away from bad people. The unit that begins with verse 16 is more specific—a warning of the dangers of the sexual seductress.
15. twisted. That is, both the paths and the men who go on them are twisted.
16. stranger-woman. The meaning of the Hebrew zarah has been much debated. The usual English designation, “strange woman,” is misleading because it implies that she is strange—that is, somehow bizarre. She is not, as some have claimed, a prostitute because verse 17 indicates that she is married. There is also scant suggestion that, as others have argued, she is a foreigner, even though the parallel term in this line, nokhriyah, “alien woman,” often means foreigner. In cultic contexts, a zar is someone prohibited from entering the sacred zone of the sanctuary because he is not a priest. That sense is relevant to our text: the married woman, because she is contracted to another man, is prohibited to the susceptible youth. The paired term nokhriyah, then, in the poetic parallelism, probably has the force of “another man’s wife”—alien in a sexual rather than a national sense.
17. the guide of her youth. While some render ʾaluf as “companion,” the point is, in this patriarchal society, that the husband is expected to provide moral guidance for his wife, which in this case she has flagrantly ignored. The verbal root of the Hebrew noun means “to instruct” and has no association with companionability.
the pact of her God. Given the context of abandoning her husband-guide, the most likely reference is to the marriage contract, or perhaps, by extension, to the divine prohibition of adultery.
18. her house leads down to death. More literally, “stoops down” or “tilts down.” It is unnecessary to emend beytah, “her house,” to netivatah, “her path,” as some have proposed, because the phrase offers a vivid image of the house of the adulteress—her husband may be away on business, as in chapter 7—as a death trap: you enter it and find yourself on a chute sliding down into the realm of death. The writer seems to assume that adultery leads to death as a condign punishment, though he might have in mind the consequence of the husband’s vengeance (compare 7:23).
19. All who come to. The Hebrew makes a pointed pun because to come into a woman means to have sex with her. The house leading down to death is thus metonymically linked with the woman’s body leading to death.
21. the upright will dwell on earth. The multivalent Hebrew ʾerets here has the sense of “earth,” not “land,” because what is at issue is survival in life: the person who follows the ethical path marked out by wisdom will live long on earth while the wicked die before their time (the next verse), like the men who succumb to the wiles of the seductress.
1My son, do not forget my teaching,
and let your heart keep my commands.
2For length of days and years of life
and peace they will add for you.
3Kindness and truth will not forsake you.
write them on your heart’s tablet,
4and find favor and good regard
in the eyes of God and man.
5Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your discernment.
6Through all your ways know Him,
and He will make your paths straight.
7Do not be wise in your own eyes,
fear the LORD and swerve from evil.
8Let it be healing for your flesh
and a balm to your bones.
9Honor the LORD more than your wealth
and than the first fruits of your crop,
10and your barns will be filled with abundance,
your vats will burst with new wine.
11The LORD’s reproof, my son, do not spurn,
and do not despise His rebuke.
12For whom the LORD loves He rebukes,
and like a father his son, regards him kindly.
13Happy the man who has found wisdom,
and the man who acquires discernment.
14For her worth is better than silver’s worth,
and her yield better than fine gold.
15More precious is she than rubies,
and all your cherished things could not equal her.
16Length of days are in her right hand,
in her left hand wealth and honor.
17Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace.
18A tree of life is she to those who grasp her,
and those who hold her are deemed happy.
19The LORD through wisdom founded earth,
set heavens firm through discernment.
20Through His knowledge the deeps burst open,
and the skies dripped dew.
21My son, let these things not slip away from your eyes,
keep prudence and cunning,
22and they will be life to your neck
and grace to your throat.
23Then you shall walk secure on your way,
and your foot shall not be bruised.
24If you lie down, you shall not be afraid.
You shall lie down, and your sleep shall be sweet.
25You shall not fear any sudden fright,
nor the plight of the wicked when it comes.
26For the LORD will be your trust,
and will guard your foot from the snare.
27Don’t hold back bounty from him who earned it
when it’s within your hand’s power to perform.
28Don’t say to your friend, “Go and come back,
and tomorrow I’ll give,” when you have it.
29Don’t plot harm against your fellow,
when he dwells secure alongside you.
30Don’t quarrel with a man for no reason
if he has done you no harm.
31Don’t envy a man of violence
and don’t choose any of his ways.
32For a crooked man is the LORD’s loathing,
and the upright are His intimates.
33The LORD’s blight is on the house of the wicked,
and the abode of the righteous He blesses.
34As for the scoffers, He scoffs at them,
but to the humble He grants favor.
35The wise inherit honor,
CHAPTER 3 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
2. length of days … years of life. This pronouncement continues the central pragmatic theme in Proverbs: that following the path of wisdom leads to physical well-being, prosperity, and longevity.
3. round your neck, / … on your heart’s tablet. The teachings of wisdom are both an external ornament and something to be internalized and permanently retained.
4. good regard. The Hebrew sekhel can also mean “intelligence” (a usage carried forward in modern Hebrew, where it suggests something like “common sense”). But the verbal root means “to see”—in many languages, there is a link between seeing and understanding—as in Genesis 3:6, “the tree was lovely to look at [lehaskil].” In the present context, where the opinions of others is at issue, “regard” seems the likely meaning. Fox comes to the same conclusion.
6. make your paths straight. The verb could also mean “level,” meaning you can walk on your paths without obstruction, but the antithesis of crooked paths (see 2:15) may make straightening the more likely meaning.
7. Do not be wise in your own eyes, / fear the LORD. Behind this admonition is the key idea that fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.
8. your flesh. The Masoretic Text reads shorekha, “your navel,” which sounds bizarre, the navel not being known as a focus of bodily well-being. The Septuagint evidently used a Hebrew text that read, far more probably, sheʾeirkha, “your flesh,” and it seems likely that the medial aleph was inadvertently dropped in scribal transmission.
10. abundance. Literally, “satiety.” The reference is to abundant grain, paired with new wine in the second verset.
13. Happy the man. After the general exhortation to follow the words of the wise that takes up verses 1–12, a new unit begins here. The ʾashrey formula, “happy the man,” often marks the beginning of a textual unit, as in the Wisdom psalm (Psalm 1) that stands at the head of the canonical collection. The subject of this poetic sequence, which ends at verse 20, is a celebration of the transcendent powers of wisdom.
14. her worth. Although wisdom is not explicitly personified in 1:20–33, she is nevertheless represented as a feminine figure, possessing two hands (verse 16). The term for “worth” here, saḥar, implies market value.
15. rubies. As with most precious stones in the biblical lexicon, the precise identification is uncertain. In modern Hebrew, peninim means “pearls,” which might possibly be its biblical sense.
18. deemed happy. The word “deemed” has been added because the passive verb meʾushar is the condition of the person of whom others say ʾashrey, “happy is he.”
19. The LORD through wisdom founded earth. Though this could be read as a poetic flourish, it begins to move toward the idea cultivated by Kabbalists and others that wisdom is a cosmic principle by which God works out the design of creation.
20. the deeps burst open, / … the skies dripped dew. This figuration of fructifying creation is a benign reversal of the Flood story, where “all the wellsprings of the great deep burst / and the casements of the heavens were opened” (Genesis 7:11).
21. My son, let these things not slip away from your eyes. This unit of the text, which runs to verse 26, is a series of exhortations to cling to wisdom and thus enjoy its benefits, which parallels the similar series in verses 1–12, forming a kind of frame around the celebration of the supernal force of wisdom in verses 13–20.
22. life to your neck / … grace to your throat. Because of the poetic parallelism, the probable sense of the multivalent nefesh here, as frequently in Psalms (see, for example, Psalm 69:2), is “neck.” The idea of wisdom as an ornament around the neck (compare verse 3) is common in Proverbs, but “life to your neck” sounds odd. The reference might conceivably be to a life-protecting amulet, worn around the neck.
25. plight of the wicked. That is, sooner or later, disaster will inevitably overtake the wicked, but a person who follows the ways of wisdom will have no reason to fear such catastrophe.
27. Don’t hold back bounty. These words initiate a fourth textual unit, which is a miscellany of negative injunctions regarding behavior toward one’s fellow man. It must be said that this whole series borders on platitude, rather like Polonius’s advice to Laertes in Hamlet.
32. crooked … / upright. The two Hebrew terms are pointed antonyms because “upright,” yesharim, is literally “straight.”
and the upright are His intimates. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “and the upright are with [or part of] His intimate circle.”
35. honor, / … disgrace. The two Hebrew terms are antonyms not only semantically but also etymologically: the word for “honor,” kavod, derives from a root that means “weighty” or “heavy,” and the word for “disgrace,” qalon, derives from a root that means “light,” which is to say, of no importance.
take away. The Hebrew merim (ostensibly, “raises”) is anomalous and also a singular verb where the plural is required. Efforts to recover an original term by emendation have been unavailing, but the poetic parallelism indicates that a word meaning “to take possession” was intended.
1Hear, O sons, a father’s reproof,
and listen to discerning knowledge.
2For good learning I have given you,
do not forsake my teaching.
3For I was a son to my father,
a tender only child for my mother.
4And he taught me and said to me:
“Let your heart hold on to my words.
Keep my commands and live.
5Get wisdom, get discernment.
Do not forget nor swerve from my mouth’s sayings.
6Do not forsake her and she will guard you.
Love her and she will keep you.
7The beginning of wisdom is—get wisdom,
and in all that you get, get discernment.
8Dandle her and she will exalt you,
will honor you when you embrace her.
9She will put on your head a garland of grace,
a crown of splendor she will hand you.”
10Hear, my son, and take my sayings,
that the years of your life be many.
11In the way of wisdom I teach you,
I guide you on pathways of rightness.
12When you walk, your step is not straitened.
If you run, you will not stumble.
13Hold fast to reproof, don’t let go.
Keep it, for it is your life.
14On the wicked’s path do not enter,
and do not stride on the way of the evil.
15Shun it, don’t pass upon it,
turn away from it and pass on.
16For they do not sleep if they’ve done no evil,
and they’re robbed of sleep if they trip no one up.
17For they break the bread of wickedness,
and the wine of outrage they drink.
18But the path of the righteous is like light’s radiance,
ever brighter till day has come.
19The way of the wicked is like darkness.
They know not on what they stumble.
20My son, listen to my words,
to my sayings bend your ear.
21Let them not slip away from your eyes,
guard them within your heart.
22For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their flesh.
23More than anything watched guard your heart,
for from it are the ways out to life.
24Put away from you twisted speech
and lips’ contortion keep far from you.
25Let your eyes look in front,
and your gaze straight before you.
26Level the pathway of your foot,
and all your ways will be sound.
27Do not veer to the right or the left.
Keep your foot away from evil.
CHAPTER 4 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
3. For I was a son to my father. In the tradition-oriented framework of Proverbs, wisdom is a quality that age imparts to youth (a theme repeatedly struck by Job’s companions), father to son. That idea is reinforced here by the introduction of a third generation, the grandfather of the young man who is the object of instruction. Just as the Mentor was taught by his father, whose words he goes on to quote, he will teach the young man.
a tender only child. As an only child, he would have been a special object of parental attention and of solicitude for his moral education.
6. Do not forsake her. The feminine pronoun refers to wisdom, which, even without explicit personification, is imagined as a female figure.
7. The beginning of wisdom is—get wisdom. This sounds tautological, but Fox plausibly explains that it means one must acquire the precepts of wisdom even if at first it may be only by rote, with true comprehension dawning later.
8. Dandle her. There has been some exegetical dispute about the precise meaning of the verb salsel (the root probably suggests “curling”), but the manifest chiastic structure of the line argues for some physical expression of affection: dandle (a), exalt (b), honor (b’), embrace (a’). The next line exhibits a similar chiastic pattern.
10. Hear, my son. This formulaic exhortation, after the citation of the grandfather’s admonitions to embrace wisdom, marks the beginning of a new unit. The subject of this unit is the imperative need to avoid the company of the wicked, and its governing metaphor is the two paths—the way of wisdom (verses 11–13) and the way of the wicked (verses 14–19).
12. your step is not straitened. The translation picks up a hint from the King James Version, which follows the alliterative effect of the Hebrew, loʾ-yeitsar tsaʿadekha.
14. On the wicked’s path do not enter. The use of “enter” suggests that you should not even think of setting foot on that path.
17. the bread of wickedness, / and the wine of outrage. Unwilling to rest until they have done harm, they make their ill-gotten gains their daily diet.
18. like light’s radiance, / ever brighter till day has come. This translation agrees with Fox, and against many interpreters, that nekhon hayom (literally, “the establishment of day”) does not refer to noon but to the moment in the morning when the sun is fully risen and the daylight is strong. However, there is no warrant for construing ’or, the primary biblical term for light, as “dawn,” as Fox proposes, nor can one accept his understanding of the accompanying term, nogah, as a “derivative luminescence,” since there are many biblical texts in which it is clearly a bright shining.
20. My son, listen to my words. Again this formula signals the beginning of a new textual unit. In this instance it is a miscellany of moral advice, involving the need to cling to the teachings of wisdom (verses 21–23), the avoidance of duplicitous speech (verse 24), and the importance of concentrating on the goal in front of you without glancing at the temptations on all sides (verses 25–27).
23. More than anything watched guard your heart. The heart is the seat of understanding or, as we might say, the center of conscious intellection, and so it becomes the repository of the wisdom the young person will imbibe, and it needs to be zealously guarded.
the ways out to life. This expression, which has an antithetical counterpart in Psalm 68:21, “the ways out from death,” has a certain mythological resonance, reinforcing the tremendous power of the human heart.
24. twisted speech. Literally, “mouth’s twistedness.”
25. Let your eyes look in front. The burden of this and the two subsequent lines that conclude the unit is that since moral dangers and temptations swarm on all sides, one must keep looking straight ahead and also choose a safe level path on which to walk in life. This prudential advice points toward a puritanical outlook, as in the cognate injunction in the Mishnah (Avot), “He who walks on a road and says ‘How lovely this tree, how lovely this field,’ incurs mortal guilt.” The idea of looking only straight ahead of you is also the exact opposite of Qohelet’s endeavor to explore all the realms of experience in search of wisdom.
gaze. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “eyelids.” The claim of some interpreters, from Late Antiquity to the present, that the term means “eyeballs” is dubious. Because poetic parallelism requires a synonym for “eyes,” the word for “eyelids” was enlisted: though one doesn’t see with the eyelids, by metonymic extension the word becomes in poetry a stand-in for eyes.
1My son, to my wisdom hearken,
to my discernment bend your ear,
2to guard cunning
so that your lips may keep knowledge.
3For the stranger-woman’s lips drip honey,
smoother than oil her open mouth.
4But in the end she’s as bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a double-edged sword.
5Her feet go down to Death,
in Sheol her steps take hold.
6No path of life she traces,
her pathways wander, and she does not know.
7And now, sons, hear me,
and do not swerve from my mouth’s sayings.
8Keep your way far from her
and do not go near the entrance of her house,
9lest you give to others your glory
and your years to a ruthless man,
10lest strangers sate themselves with your vigor,
and your toil—in an alien’s house,
11and in the end you roar
when your body and flesh waste away.
12And you will say, “How I hated reproof,
and my heart despised rebuke.
13And I did not heed my teachers’ voice,
to my instructors I did not bend my ear.
14Soon I fell into every harm
in the midst of the assembled crowd.”
15Drink water from your own well,
fresh water from your cistern.
16Your springs will spread to the street,
in the squares, streams of water.
17Let them be yours alone
and not for strangers alongside you.
18Let your fountain be blessed,
and rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19Love’s doe, a graceful gazelle,
her breasts ever slake your thirst,
you will always dote in her love.
20And why dote, my son, on a stranger-woman,
21For before the LORD’s eyes are the ways of a man,
He traces all his pathways.
22The crimes of the wicked ensnare him,
in the ropes of his offense he is held.
23He will die for want of reproof,
in his great doltishness he will dote.
CHAPTER 5 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. My son, to my wisdom hearken. This poem begins with the usual formula of exhortation by the Mentor (this verse and the next). In this case, we have one continuous poem until the end of the chapter, a warning about the wiles of the stranger-woman and a celebration of the joys of conjugal sex. The poem is not quite narrative, like the matching poem of chapter 7, despite certain narrative elements, but it is remarkable in the way it elaborates its argument through metaphor.
3. the stranger-woman’s lips drip honey. The sensual ripeness of the alliteration in the Hebrew nofet titofna siftey zarah has a nearly identical counterpart in Song of Songs 4:11. In the translation, “lips drip” is a gesture toward this cluster of sound. The seductive lips are a counterpart to the lips that should keep knowledge in the preceding line.
open mouth. The literal meaning of ḥeikh is “palate.” Since it is in all likelihood not speech but kisses that are referred to in both halves of the line, the translation adds “open” in keeping with the erotic enticement that the poet surely had in mind. The Hebrew term used, as we shall see, sets up a strategic pun that occurs later in the poem.
4. double-edged sword. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “sword of [two] mouths,” thus called because in biblical idiom the edge of the sword consumes. The idiom in this way shrewdly loops back, in an antithesis, to the lips and mouth (or palate) of the seductress.
6. she does not know. Focused as she is on sexual pleasure and the arts of seduction, she has no sense that she is embarked on a disastrous course, far from the straight way.
7. And now, sons. The Mentor temporarily switches to the plural, perhaps to generalize the case of this particular young man, but he then switches back to the singular in the next verse.
8. the entrance of her house. More literally, this would be “the opening of her house.” Though the admonition is literally spatial—steer clear of her house, don’t even think of approaching the door—an analogy is intimated between the woman’s house and her body. (In the Talmud, this Hebrew term, petah,̣ becomes a designation of the vagina in some discussions of marital law.)
10. lest strangers sate themselves with your vigor. The causal mechanism is ambiguous. If the woman is married, like the stranger-woman in chapter 7, the young man might be stripped of his resources by a husband’s suit for damages. If she is single, she could turn out to be a gold digger who, exploiting his sexual obsession, would take him for all he’s worth.
11. your body and flesh waste away. Presumably, this would be the consequence of his lacking the wherewithal to nourish himself properly, although the possibility of venereal disease should not be excluded.
14. the assembled crowd. Literally, “the assembly and congregation,” which is here construed as a hendiadys. The idea is that the real harm suffered because of the stranger-woman will be compounded by public shaming.
15. Drink water from your own well. The association of the well with female fertility and especially with the womb (or vagina) is reflected both in the Song of Songs and in the recurrent betrothal type-scene, where the young man encounters his future bride by a well. The pure waters of the well are an antithesis to the sweet honey and smooth oil of the seductress’s mouth. It is not clear whether the young man is already married or is being urged to enter marriage and its pleasures before he succumbs to the lure of the stranger-woman.
16. Your springs will spread to the street. Many critics prefer to follow the reading of the Septuagint, “Lest your springs spread to the street” because of the idea that the husband should enjoy his own private well, within the confines of his house. But since the spring or well is associated with the woman, it is not altogether clear what this would refer to—perhaps, by a stretch, to a prospect that the wife would become promiscuous because of her husband’s infidelity, which is not entirely plausible. The line might mean, as we have proposed, that the consequences of the man’s drinking from his own well—which perhaps would be his offspring—will be felt in the public realm. The next verse, however, would seem to argue for the Septuagint reading.
19. Love’s doe, a graceful gazelle. These delicate animal images are drawn from the same repertory as the animal images repeatedly used in the Song of Songs. The “love,” attached to “doe,” ʾahavim, suggests lovemaking rather than the emotional relationship, ʾahavah.
her breasts ever slake your thirst. Some interpreters revocalize dadim, “breasts,” as dodim, “lovemaking,” in keeping with the language of the Song of Songs. But given the emphasis in this poem on drinking, the physical image of drinking from the breasts may be more likely.
20. why dote. It is a characteristic maneuver of biblical poetry and of biblical narrative to effect the move from one segment of the text to the next by repeating a key word used in a different sense. Here, the core meaning of sh-g-h, to give oneself to excess or wild feeling, is retained, but there is a switch from a positive valence (the beloved wife) to a negative one (the stranger-woman).
lap. The Hebrew hẹiq is obviously a metonymy for the woman’s sexual part, and it puns on the term for another orifice, hẹikh (“palate” or “mouth”), used at the beginning of the poem and thus registers a small narrative progression. The allure of the seductress’s mouth leads to dangerous sexual intimacy.
23. he will dote. This concluding verb closes the circle in the representation of the foolish young man who makes the mistake of falling for the seductress: the Hebrew, like the English, is ambiguous, leaving the reader to decide whether he is doting on the stranger-woman in his foolishness or simply doting on the condition of foolishness.
1My son, if you stood pledge for your fellow man,
gave your handshake to a stranger,
2you’ve been ensnared by your mouth’s sayings,
trapped by your mouth’s sayings.
3Do this, then, my son, and escape,
for you have fallen into your fellow man’s grasp,
go grovel, and pester your fellow man.
nor slumber to your eyelids.
5Escape like the deer from the hunter,
and the bird from the fowler’s hand.
6Go to the ant, you sluggard,
see its ways and get wisdom.
7For she has no foreman,
no taskmaster nor ruler.
8She readies her bread in summer,
stores up her food at the harvest.
9How long, O sluggard, will you lie there.
When will you rise from your sleep?
10A bit more sleep, a bit more slumber,
a bit more lying with folded arms,
11and your privation will come like a wayfarer,
your want like a shield-bearing man.
12A worthless fellow, a wrongdoing man,
goes about with a crooked mouth,
13winking his eyes, shuffling his feet,
pointing with his fingers,
14perverseness in his heart, plotting evil,
ever fomenting strife.
15Therefore his ruin will come suddenly,
he’ll be broken all at once beyond cure.
16Six things are there that the LORD hates,
and seven He utterly loathes.
17Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands shedding innocent blood,
18a heart plotting wicked designs,
feet hurrying to run to evil,
19a lying deposer, a false witness,
fomenting strife among brothers.
20Keep, my son, your father’s command,
and do not abandon your mother’s teaching.
21Bind them on your heart at all times,
garland them round your neck.
22When you walk about, it will guide you,
when you lie down, it will guard you,
when you wake, it will converse with you.
23For a command is a lamp and teaching a light,
and the way of life—stern rebukes.
24To keep you from your fellow man’s wife,
from the smooth tongue of an alien woman.
25Do not covet her beauty in your heart,
and let her not take you with her eyelids.
26For a whore’s price is no more than a loaf of bread,
but a married woman stalks a precious life.
27Can a man scoop fire into his lap
without his garments burning?
28Can a man walk on glowing coals
without his feet being scorched?
29Thus who comes to bed with his fellow man’s wife,
whoever touches her will not go scot-free.
30Let one not scorn the thief when he robs
to fill his belly when he hungers.
31If he is caught, he must pay sevenfold,
all the wealth of his house he must give.
32Who commits adultery with a woman is senseless,
ruining his life, it is he who does it.
33Blight and disgrace he will find,
and his shame will not be wiped out.
34For jealousy turns into a man’s wrath,
he will show no pity on the day of vengeance.
35He will take no account of ransom,
and will not be content, though you offer large bribes.
CHAPTER 6 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. if you stood pledge. The first unit of this chapter, ending with verse 5, is another of the Mentor’s pragmatic admonitions to the young man—in this instance, not to guarantee loans for others, an imprudent act that could easily lead one to financial ruin.
2. mouth’s sayings, / … mouth’s sayings. The characteristic pattern of biblical poetry would be to use a synonymous phrase in the second verset instead of the selfsame words. In fact, the Syriac translation reads for the second verset “by the word of your lips,” and that may well have been the original version.
3. escape. Literally, “be saved” (in a physical, not spiritual, sense).
go grovel, and pester your fellow man. The advice proffered is practical though scarcely edifying: if you have been foolish enough to get yourself into this sort of fix, use whatever means you can, even if they are humiliating or unpleasant, to extricate yourself from your obligation.
5. hunter. The Masoretic Text reads miyad, “from a hand.” This translation follows the Septuagint, which used a Hebrew text that seems to have had mitsayad, “from a hunter.”
9. How long, O sluggard, will you lie there. The lazybones sprawled inert on his couch is of course a sharp counterpoint to the ants scurrying about to gather their food, with no need of a taskmaster to urge them on.
11. your privation will come like a wayfarer. The inevitable consequence of the sluggard’s unwillingness to bestir himself and provide for his own needs is destitution. The term used here for poverty, reish, is relatively uncommon, and may derive from the verbal stem y-r-sh, which can mean to take over someone else’s possessions (hence the translation choice of “privation”). “Wayfarer” represents the Hebrew mehalekh, which means “one who walks about.” The most probable reference is to a passerby or vagabond who breaks into an unprotected house.
a shield-bearing man. This would be an intensification, as is the general case for parallel terms in the second verset, of “wayfarer,” probably referring to an armed brigand.
12. crooked mouth. While the phrase indicates perverted speech, it also launches the pattern of distorted body parts that is continued in the next line.
13. eyes … feet, / … fingers. These gestures are evidently expressions of attempted seduction or deception, but as they are catalogued, they clearly represent the worthless fellow as someone who makes himself look grotesque.
16. Six things … / seven. This numerical pattern—six, or indeed seven, and elsewhere, three, or indeed four—is used several times in Proverbs and occasionally in the Prophets. The miscellaneous character of the list accords with the miscellaneous character of this whole unit, which runs from verse 12 through verse 19.
17–18. eyes … tongue, / … hands, … heart … / feet. These lines pick up the use of body parts in verses 12 and 13 to create a small catalogue of immoral acts and stances, each associated with the agency of a particular physical organ or member.
20. Keep, my son, your father’s command. The unit that begins here, a warning against the dangers of adultery, is relatively long and has a formal exordium that takes up four verses (20–23). The adding of mother to father points to a solid conjugal couple contrasting to adulterers.
22. walk about … / lie down … / wake. The language alludes to Deuteronomy 6:7, where it is the words of God’s teaching (not, as here, that of human mentors) that must be remembered at all times.
23. stern rebukes. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “rebukes of reproof,” but, as elsewhere, the effect of joining synonyms in the construct state is an intensification, hence “stern.”
24. your fellow man’s wife. The Masoretic Text reads ʾeshet raʾ, “wife of an evil man,” but the phrase is semantically problematic. The Septuagint has reʿa (merely a difference of vocalization), “fellow man,” which is quite convincing as the authentic version.
smooth tongue. Literally, “smoothness of tongue.” The clear reference is to her seductive words.
25. covet. The Hebrew verb probably has the force here of “lust,” but it is the same verb used in the Decalogue in the prohibition of adultery, and so it is appropriate to follow the translation choice adopted for the Decalogue.
her eyelids. Here the common poetic synonym for “eyes” has special relevance—the fluttering of the eyelids seductively.
26. a whore’s price … a loaf of bread. The expression is no doubt hyperbolic (in Genesis 38 Tamar stipulates a kid—rather more valuable than a loaf of bread—as the price of her sexual favors): if you want sex, you could get it from a whore for mere pennies, whereas the real cost of sex with a married woman will be the destruction of your life (“a married woman stalks a precious life”). The poet is not suggesting that the adulteress is a deliberate killer, but rather that her cheating on her spouse will bring down the murderous wrath of her husband (verses 34 and 35) on her lover.
27. scoop fire into his lap. Pointedly, “lap” is linked by metonymy to the sexual organ. Fox neatly notes that “the line’s assonance and alliteration are evocative of the hissing and crackling of fire”—hayaḥeteh ʾish ʾesh beḥeiqo.
29. who comes to bed with. Literally, “who comes into.” The idiom, however, refers not just to penetration but to the full sexual act, with the usual implication of a man’s having sex with a woman for the first time.
not go scot-free. Literally, “not be innocent.”
30. Let one not scorn the thief. The two verses here on the thief seem to interrupt the disquisition on the dangers of adultery, which resumes with verse 32. The connection may be in the next verset, “to fill his belly [literally, “throat” or “appetite”] when he hungers” and the prospect of impoverishment invoked in the next line: the thief takes what does not belong to him because he is hungry, a more elemental appetite than the lust that impels the adulterer, who takes a woman who is not his; the likely consequence for the thief is being stripped of all he possesses, whereas the adulterer’s fate is shame, possible destitution (if the husband demands damages), and even death (if the husband’s jealous rage turns lethal).
32. adultery with a woman. The redundant “with a woman” in the Hebrew creates metrical balance with the second verset, but the word also brings us back to the evocation of the seductive married woman in verses 24–26.
senseless. Literally, “lacking heart,” the heart here figuring as the seat of reason.
34. jealousy turns into a man’s wrath. Literally, “jealousy is a man’s wrath.”
1My son, keep my sayings,
and store up my commands within you.
2Keep my commands and live,
my teaching like the apple of your eye.
3Bind them on your fingers,
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4Say to Wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and call Discernment a friend.
5To keep you from a stranger-woman,
from a smooth-talking alien woman.
6For from the window of my house,
through my lattice I looked down,
7and I saw among the dupes,
discerned among the young men a witless lad,
8passing through streets, by the corner,
on the way to her house he strides,
9at twilight, as evening descends,
in pitch-black night and darkness.
10And, look, a woman to meet him,
whore’s attire and hidden intent.
11Bustling she is and wayward,
in her house her feet do not stay.
12Now outside, now in the square,
and by every corner she lurks.
13She seizes him and kisses him,
impudently says to him:
14“I had to make well-being offerings,
today I’ve fulfilled my vows.
15And so I’ve come out to meet you,
to seek you, and I’ve found you.
16With coverlets I’ve spread my couch,
dyed cloths of Egyptian linen.
17I’ve sprinkled my bed with myrrh,
with aloes and cinnamon.
18Come, let us drink deep of loving till morn,
let us revel in love’s delights.
19For the man is not in his house,
he’s gone on a far-off way.
20The purse of silver he took in his hand,
at the new moon he’ll return to his house.”
21She sways him with all her talk,
with her smooth speech she leads him astray.
22He goes after her in a trice,
as an ox goes off to the slaughter,
as a stag prances into a halter.
23Till an arrow pierces his liver,
as a bird hastens to the snare,
not knowing the cost is his life.
24And now, sons, listen to me,
and attend to my mouth’s sayings.
25Let your heart not veer to her ways,
and do not go astray on her paths.
26For many the victims she has felled,
innumerable all whom she has killed.
27Through her house are the ways to Sheol,
going down to the chambers of Death.
CHAPTER 7 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. My son, keep my sayings. This poem, a unified structure that takes up the entire chapter, is framed by a five-line exordium, with the specific topic introduced in verse 5, and a four-line conclusion (verses 24–27), in which the speaker points the moral of his story. What unfolds in between these frames is the closest to a sustained narrative that one finds in Proverbs.
6. from the window of my house, / through my lattice I looked down. The Mentor enjoys a spatially superior position, able to survey the street scene below where sexual dangers await the unwitting, he himself sheltered from curious eyes by the lattice through which he peers. As he goes on with his story, however, he moves from visual observation to novelistic invention in the vivid dialogue he provides for the seductress. His post of observation in his house is a counterpoint to the house of the stranger-woman with its lethal dangers. The narrative will be defined in part by the two thematic key words, “house” and “way.”
9. at twilight … / in pitch-black night and darkness. This line is a vivid instance of the deployment of narrative development from the first verset to the second in lines of biblical poetry. When the young man goes into the streets, heading in the direction of the seductress’s house—whether intentionally or inadvertently—evening is falling. In the next moment—one might recall that sunset is quick in the latitude of the land of Israel—it is already night, under the cloak of which the arts of seduction can be exercised with impunity. The word for “pitch-black” is ʾishon, otherwise the apple of the eye (as in verse 2)—that is, the darkest part of the eye. It is a characteristic procedure of biblical narrative and poetry to repeat the same word with a different meaning as a move is effected from one segment of the text to the next.
10. whore’s attire. Since she is a married woman, not a professional prostitute, the reference is probably to provocative attire, not to clothing explicitly marked for the practice of prostitution.
hidden intent. Literally, “guarded of heart.” The translation follows an apt suggestion by Michael V. Fox.
11. in her house her feet do not stay. In this society, a woman’s place is in her home. Her going out into the streets is an expression of her sexual restlessness (no doubt encouraged by the extended absence of her husband).
13. She seizes him and kisses him. Her role as sexual aggressor is manifest.
14. I had to make well-being offerings. The point is not merely her hypocrisy in launching an overture to adultery fresh from the Temple service but also that she is proposing to him a sumptuous meat dinner as a prelude to sex. The shelamim, well-being offerings, would have only in part been burned on the altar with another part of the animal reserved for feasting.
16. With coverlets I’ve spread my couch, / dyed cloths of Egyptian linen. Now she moves to the site of sexual consummation, explaining that she has lavishly prepared her bed with luxurious cloths imported from Egypt, scented with aromatic spices (verse 17) imported from Arabia and the east (probably India). It is clear that the seductress has means of affluence at her disposal, in all likelihood provided by her husband’s activities as a merchant (see verse 20).
18. let us drink deep of loving till morn. The word for “loving,” dodim, refers explicitly to lovemaking, and the drinking of dodim is a phrase used in the Song of Songs. Counting on his youthful vigor, she is offering him a whole night of continuous sex.
19. For the man is not in his house. This reference to her husband—not “my man” or “my husband” but “the man”—is vaguely contemptuous. This line neatly counterparts the two thematic key words, “house” and “way.” While the man is “on a far-off way,” his house can become a love nest of adultery.
20. The purse of silver. This detail equally suggests that the husband is a prosperous merchant and that he will be away for a long time. Some interpreters see in it a hint that she is requesting money from the young man, though that is not a necessary inference.
at the new moon. Many understand the Hebrew keseh to mean full moon, but the term clearly reflects the verbal root that means “to cover,” which would accord far better with the new moon. If this assumption is correct, the story would unfold in the early days of the lunar month, when the moon is still a sliver and it is quite dark at night. That would give the wayward wife and the young man almost four weeks to drink deep of love’s pleasures.
22. a stag prances into a halter. The received text at this point is garbled. The New Jewish Publication Society, for example, renders it “as a fool for the stocks of punishment,” not translating the first, incomprehensible word ukheʿekhes, and producing an unlikely parallel to the preceding verset about the ox going to slaughter. Instead of the Masoretic ukheʿekhes ʾel-musar ʾewil, this translation adopts a proposed emendation ukheʿakes ʾel-musar ʾeyal, which involves merely a revocalization of the first word and deleting the waw in the last word, with revocalization. Musar in this animal context would not mean “reproof,” as it does elsewhere in Proverbs, but “sash” or “halter” (the meaning of this word in Job 12:18).
23. an arrow pierces his liver. This may be simply an image of a fatal wound, though biblical Hebrew links the liver with sexual desire, so it could conceivably refer to venereal disease. Otherwise, the fate of death would be at the hands of the vengeful husband. It is a reflection of the pragmatic orientation of Proverbs that the Mentor warns against adultery not as a violation of a divine commandment but as an act that can have lethal consequences.
27. Through her house are the ways to Sheol. Here at the end, the key terms “house” and “way” are pointedly brought together. Her house turns out to hide a kind of metaphoric trapdoor—perhaps underneath that bed with its fancy linens—opening on a chute that takes one down to the realm of death.
1Look, Wisdom calls out,
and Discernment lifts her voice.
2At the top of the heights, on the way,
at the crossroads, she takes her stand,
3by the gates, at the city’s entrance,
at the approach to the portals, she shouts:
4To you, men, I call out,
and my voice, to humankind.
5Understand shrewdness, you dupes,
and fools, make your heart understand.
6Listen, for I speak noble things,
my mouth’s utterance—uprightness.
7For my tongue declares truth
and my lips loathe wickedness.
8In the right are all my mouth’s sayings,
nothing in them is twisted or crooked.
9They are all plain to the discerning
and straightforward for those who find knowledge.
10Take my reproof rather than silver,
and knowledge is choicer than fine gold.
11For wisdom is better than rubies,
all precious things can’t match her worth.
12I, Wisdom, dwell in shrewdness,
and cunning knowledge I find.
13Fear of the LORD is hating evil.
Pride, haughtiness, an evil way,
and perverse speech do I hate.
14Mine is counsel and prudence,
I am Discernment, mine is might.
15Through me kings reign,
and rulers decree righteous laws.
16Through me princes hold sway,
and nobles, all the judges of earth.
17I, all my lovers I love,
and my seekers do find me.
18Riches and honor are with me,
long-lasting wealth and righteousness.
19My fruit is better than all fine gold,
and my yield, than the choicest silver.
20On the path of righteousness I walk,
within the ways of justice,
21to pass substance on to my lovers,
and their storehouses to fill.
22The LORD created me at the outset of His way,
the very first of His works of old.
23In remote eons I was shaped,
at the start of the first things of earth.
24When there were no deeps I was spawned,
when there were no wellsprings, water sources.
25Before mountains were anchored,
before hills I was spawned.
26He had yet not made earth and open land,
and the world’s first clods of soil.
27When He founded the heavens, I was there,
when He traced a circle on the face of the deep,
28when He propped up the skies above,
when He powered the springs of the deep,
29when He set to the sea its limit,
that the waters not flout His command,
when He strengthened the earth’s foundations.
30And I was by Him, an intimate,
I was His delight day after day,
playing before Him at all times,
31playing in the world, His earth,
and my delight with humankind.
32And now, sons, listen to me,
happy who keeps my ways.
33Listen to reproof and get wisdom,
and do not cast it aside.
34Happy the man who listens to me,
to wait at my doors day after day,
to watch the posts of my portals.
35For who finds me has found life,
and will be favored by the LORD.
36And who offends me lays waste his life,
all who hate me love death.
CHAPTER 8 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
2. At the top of the heights, on the way. The figure of Lady Wisdom positions herself up above—evidently, in a variety of places—where she can be widely heard down below, and she stands by the crossroads and at the entrance to the city (verse 3), where there are many passersby who will hear her voice. The implication is that wisdom is not a hidden or esoteric treasure but something plainly accessible—in the metaphor used here, proclaimed—to all.
6. my mouth’s utterance. More literally, “my mouth’s opening.”
7. my lips loathe wickedness. Literally, “the loathing of my lips is wickedness.”
8. twisted or crooked. Throughout the speech of Lady Wisdom, as elsewhere in Proverbs, there is an emphatic thematic contrast between the crooked and the straight.
9. plain … / straightforward. Again, the notion is stressed that wisdom is universally accessible—indeed, transparent. The term rendered as “straightforward” could also be translated rather literally as “what is straight” or “straightness.”
12. I, Wisdom, dwell in shrewdness. This is not really tautological. The quality of wisdom is predicated on the exercise of a kind of savvyness—shrewdness or cunning. See the comment on 1:4.
13. perverse speech. Literally, “a mouth of perversities.”
15. Through me kings reign. Here begins a new emphasis about the importance of wisdom, prepared for by the mention of “might” at the end of the previous line. Wisdom is a crucial prerequisite for statecraft, and only through it are rulers able to exercise effective governance.
16. all the judges of earth. The Masoretic Text reads “all the judges of justice [tsedeq],” but many Hebrew manuscripts as well as two ancient translations show instead “earth” (ʾerets), which sounds better in context. It seems likely that a scribe inadvertently reproduced tsedeq from the end of the previous line.
19. all fine gold. The Hebrew uses two synonyms for gold, neither of them the standard word.
21. to pass substance on to my lovers. As elsewhere, Proverbs assumes that the exercise of wisdom leads to prosperity, among other good things.
22. The LORD created me at the outset of His way. Although Lady Wisdom is still speaking, the section from here through verse 31 looks like a new poem or, at the very least, a distinct new segment of the same poem. The speech from verse 1 through verse 21 is a celebration by Wisdom of her powers—her gift of plain and accessible discourse, the preciousness of her words, her indispensability as a guide to all who govern, the material benefits she conveys to her followers. It must be said that much of the poetry of this section deploys boilerplate language, echoing quite similar formulations—or even formulas—that one encounters elsewhere in Proverbs. The poem that begins with verse 22 has a cosmic framework rather than a pragmatic one: Lady Wisdom’s self-celebration goes back to the role she played as God’s intimate before He launched on the work of creation. This cosmic and cosmogonic prominence of Wisdom may well have provided a generative clue for the prose-poem about the Logos (“In the beginning was the word …”) in the first chapter of John’s Gospel. In rabbinic tradition, it was a trigger for the idea that God made the world by following the blueprint of the Torah, which pre-existed creation; and later the Kabbalah would elaborate this notion with a theosophic apparatus. This cosmic vision, moreover, is articulated in soaring poetry that seems quite unlike the poetry of the preceding section.
the very first of His works of old. Or “before His works of old.” It is not entirely clear whether the poet intends this as a literal account of the order of creation, which is how this line was understood by later Jewish and Christian tradition, or whether this whole idea of the primordial presence of Wisdom is a kind of mythic hyperbole to express Wisdom’s crucial importance in the order of things.
24. When there were no deeps. The story of creation in Genesis 1, of course, begins with God’s breath hovering over the face of the deep, so Lady Wisdom wants to take us back to the moment of her gestation that is antecedent to the beginning of creation proper.
water sources. This translation emends the Masoretic nikhbedey mayim (heavy with [?] water) to nivkhey mayim.
25. anchored. The denotation of the Hebrew verb is to set something in its sockets or on its foundations.
27. traced a circle on the face of the deep. The reference is probably to the horizon that surrounds the sea, visually marking its limits.
28. propped up. Literally, “fortified,” “strengthened.”
29. that the waters not flout His command. The literal configuration of the Hebrew idiom is “not cross His mouth.” This is a recurrent notion of cosmogonic poetry in the Bible, ultimately harking back to the Canaanite creation myth in which the sea god, Yamm, is subdued by the weather god, Baal. As in the Voice from the Whirlwind in Job 38 and in many psalms, the LORD pronounces a decree, setting a boundary to the sea and not allowing it to go up on the dry land.
strengthened. The Masoretic Text reads beḥuqo, “traced” (or “inscribed”), which looks suspiciously like an inadvertent replication of beḥuqo in 27b and is not a verb that makes much sense with “foundations” as its object. The Septuagint evidently had a Hebrew text that read beḥazqo, “when He strengthened,” the difference between the two readings being a single consonant.
30. an intimate / … His delight … / playing before Him. This line and the next are the most original—and charming—turn that the poet gives to his cosmogonic myth of the origins of Wisdom. Before there were creatures to occupy God’s attention, Wisdom was His delightful and entertaining bosom companion. As Fox aptly notes, Wisdom not only possesses great utility (the burden of the preceding poem) but it is fun—as, say, the scholar takes great pleasure in his research, the naturalist in discovering the intricacies of nature.
31. playing in the world / … and my delight with humankind. The same delights that winsome Lady Wisdom offered to her Creator she makes available in the created world to those who embrace her. In all likelihood, the possessive “my” attached to delight refers to the capacity to delight that Lady Wisdom possesses and conveys to humankind, though it might also mean the delight she takes in humanity.
32. And, now, sons, listen to me. This formulaic language marks the beginning of a five-line formal conclusion, perhaps serving both poems.
34. to wait at my doors day after day, / to watch the posts of my portals. This image, as a few interpreters have proposed, hints at the actions of a devoted suitor, whom we might expect to find at the residence of a charmer like Lady Wisdom.
1Wisdom has built her house,
she has hewn her pillars, seven.
2She has slaughtered her meat,
has mixed her wine,
also laid out her table.
3She has sent out her young women,
calls loud from the city’s heights:
4Whoever the dupe, let him turn aside here,
the senseless—she said to him.
5Come, partake of my bread,
and drink the wine I have mixed.
6Forsake foolishness and live,
and stride on the way of discernment.
7Who reproves the scoffer takes on disgrace,
who rebukes the wicked is maimed.
8Rebuke not the scoffer lest he hate you.
Rebuke the wise and he will love you.
9Give to the wise, he will get more wisdom,
inform the righteous, he will increase instruction.
10The beginning of wisdom is fear of the LORD,
and knowing the Holy One is discernment.
11For through Me your days will be many,
and the years of your life will increase.
12If you get wisdom, you get yourself wisdom,
but if you scoff, you bear it alone.
13The foolish woman bustles about.
Gullibility!—and she knows nothing of it.
14And she sits at the entrance of her house
in a chair on the city’s heights,
15to call out to the wayfarers
16Whoever the dupe, let him turn aside here,
and the senseless—she said to him.
17“Stolen waters are sweet,
and purloined bread is delicious.”
18And he does not know that shades are there,
in the depths of Sheol, her guests.
CHAPTER 9 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. Wisdom has built her house. The poem that constitutes this chapter comprises two antithetical units, the invitation of Lady Wisdom and the invitation of Lady Folly. Wisdom builds a grand, welcoming house with seven pillars. That number is not necessarily a reflection of architectural practice but rather of the formulaic and sacred character of the number seven.
her pillars, seven. The inverted order reflects the poetic flourish of the Hebrew syntax.
2. slaughtered her meat. Literally, “slaughtered her slaughter.” Meat was not typically everyday fare but was reserved for sumptuous feasts.
3. her young women. These are her maidservants. But in the second verset, it is Wisdom herself who calls out her invitation from the heights.
4. Whoever the dupe. Wisdom offers her transformative services to the naïve and the foolish, who are very much in need of them.
she said to him. A small emendation, with warrant in the Septuagint, turns this into “I said to him,” thus eliminating the third-person interruption of Lady Wisdom’s speech.
5. bread, / … wine. These primary items of food and drink are, of course, symbolic of the feast of wisdom she is offering.
7. is maimed. The literal sense would be “it’s his maiming [or blemish].”
9. Give to the wise. This phrase, which follows on the second verset of the preceding line, is clearly elliptical for “give instruction to the wise.”
10. the Holy One. The Hebrew uses a plural (“holy ones”), which most interpreters understand as a plural of majesty referring to God. This is not a usage conclusively visible elsewhere, and in some instances qedoshim is an epithet for angels. The plural ending might be a scribal error.
12. If you get wisdom, you get yourself wisdom. The sense of this seeming tautology is that wisdom is an enduring acquisition, enjoyed by the wise person and benefiting those around him, whereas scoffing isolates a person in self-disgrace and confers no benefit. It should be said that this entire verse, coming after the line of peroration in verse 11, looks out of place.
13. The foolish woman. Momentarily, it seems as though the figure invoked is an exemplary instance of human behavior, as in many lines in Proverbs, but the next verse makes clear that, like Lady Wisdom, she is an allegorical representation of a general quality.
14. she sits at the entrance of her house. Although she is strictly symmetrical with Lady Wisdom in calling out from a house on the heights of the city, nothing is said about the splendor of a many-pillared house because, understandably, the residence of Folly is not likely to be a grand edifice.
15. who go on straight paths. Literally, “who make their paths straight.” Lady Wisdom calls out to the foolish in order to make them wise. Lady Folly calls out to those going on the right path in order to lead them astray.
16. Whoever the dupe … and the senseless. Lady Folly’s words repeat verbatim those of Lady Wisdom in verse 4 but with an opposite intent. Wisdom calls to the dupes and the thoughtless with the aim of extricating them from their hapless condition through her instruction. Folly calls to them—though in her case she would not plausibly have uttered these derogatory terms but rather thought them, counting on the gullibility of those she addresses—because she intends to exploit their naïveté.
17. Stolen waters are sweet, / and purloined bread is delicious. These often quoted words actually constitute an anti-proverb, cast in the compact aphoristic form, with neat poetic parallelism, of the traditional proverb. The line epitomizes Lady Folly’s seductive message: if you want to have a really good time, nothing works better than illicit behavior.
purloined bread. Literally, “secret bread.”
18. shades are there. The seemingly inviting house of Lady Folly with her seductive speech spells disaster for whoever goes there, and so is a gateway to death, concealing a trapdoor to the underworld, like the house of the seductress in chapter 7.
1The proverbs of Solomon.
A wise son gladdens his father,
but a foolish son is his mother’s sorrow.
2The treasures of wickedness will not avail,
but righteousness saves from death.
3The LORD will not make the righteous man hunger,
but He rebuffs the desire of the wicked.
4A deceitful palm brings privation,
but the diligent hand enriches.
5A clever son stores up in the summer,
a disgraceful son slumbers at harvesttime.
6Blessings on the righteous man’s head,
but outrage will cover the mouth of the wicked.
7The memory of the righteous is for a blessing,
but the name of the wicked will rot.
8The wise of heart takes commands,
but who speaks stupidly comes to grief.
9Who walks in innocence walks secure,
but who walks crooked ways is exposed.
10Who winks with his eye gives pain,
and who speaks stupidly comes to grief.
11The righteous man’s mouth is a wellspring of life,
but outrage will cover the mouth of the wicked.
12Hatred foments strife,
but love covers up all misdeeds.
13On the discerning man’s lips wisdom is found,
but a rod for the back of the senseless!
14Wise men lay up knowledge,
but the dolt’s mouth is impending disaster.
15The rich man’s wealth is his fortress city,
the disaster of the poor, their privation.
16The effort of the righteous is for life,
the wicked’s yield is for offense.
17A path for life who observes reproof,
but who forsakes rebuke leads astray.
18Who covers up hatred has lying lips,
he who slanders is a fool.
19Through much talk misdeed will not cease,
but the shrewd man holds his tongue.
20Choice silver—a righteous man’s tongue,
but the heart of the wicked is worthless.
21The righteous man’s lips guide the many,
but dolts die for lack of sense.
22The LORD’s blessing will enrich,
and one increases no pain through it.
23As doing foul things is sport for the fool,
so is wisdom for the man of discernment.
24What the wicked dreads will come upon him,
and the desire of the righteous is granted.
25When the storm passes, the wicked is gone,
but the righteous is a lasting foundation.
26Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes,
thus the sluggard to those who send him.
27Fear of the LORD lengthens one’s days,
but the years of the wicked are short.
28The longing of the righteous is a joy,
but the hope of the wicked will perish.
29A stronghold for the blameless is the LORD’s way,
but disaster for the workers of crime.
30The righteous man never stumbles,
but the wicked will not dwell on earth.
31The mouth of the righteous puts forth wisdom,
but a perverse tongue will be cut off.
32The lips of the righteous will know to please,
and the mouth of the wicked—perverseness.
CHAPTER 10 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. The proverbs of Solomon. This is a headnote or title for the collection of sayings that runs from here to the end of chapter 23. As is true of the Late Biblical practice of ascription of texts to famous figures, it is by no means clear that the compiler was claiming actual authorship for King Solomon. The superscription might merely be saying that these proverbs are in the manner of Solomon, the legendary composer of many proverbs. Unlike chapters 1–9, which comprise extended poems, some of them taking up a whole chapter and some of them exhibiting narrative or quasidramatic elements, this collection consists of a miscellany of one-line proverbs, often with no connection from one line to the next. Much of the language is rather pat, consisting of neatly antithetical contrasts from the first verset to the second between the wise man and the fool, the righteous and the wicked, by and large cast in stereotypical terms. Much of this will require scant comment.
A wise son … / a foolish son. This initial proverb is a perfect illustration of the neatness of antithetical formulation: wise/foolish, father/mother, gladdens/sorrow.
2. righteousness saves from death. This verset would come to be chanted in Jewish funeral processions, though the meaning of tsedaqah, “righteousness,” had shifted to “charity,” which mourners were invited to offer.
3. desire. The Hebrew hawah, elsewhere “disaster,” is here either an equivalent of or a mistake for ʾawah, “desire.”
5. A clever son stores up in the summer. As we have seen elsewhere—most notably, in the observation of the ant in 6:6–8—diligence as well as honesty or probity is seen as a cardinal virtue in Proverbs.
6. the mouth of the wicked. Some emend “mouth,” pi, to “face,” peney.
8. who speaks stupidly. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “the stupid of lips.”
9. who walks crooked ways. Literally, “who makes his ways crooked.”
is exposed. Literally, “is known.”
10. winks with his eye. The reference is to either a lascivious gesture or a merely grotesque one. According to Fox, it is an expression of hostility.
14. the dolt’s mouth is impending disaster. This is the case because, by saying stupid things, he brings disaster down on himself and perhaps on those around him as well.
15. The rich man’s … / the poor. This verse illustrates how the conventionality of wisdom in these proverbs tumbles into truism since what is said here, after all, is that the rich man can depend on his wealth for security whereas the poor man’s poverty makes him miserable.
18. has lying lips. The Hebrew merely implies “has.”
19. holds his tongue. More literally, “holds his lips.”
22. one increases no pain. Many interpreters understand the Hebrew noun ʿetsev to mean “toil” or “labor” because in Genesis 3:17 this word is linked with the pain of working the soil, but ʿetsev everywhere else means “pain” or “pang.” This translation therefore understands it not to mean “no toil will increase it [the LORD’s blessing]” but that through the LORD’s blessing one is painlessly enriched.
25. When the storm passes. This is a bedrock assumption of Proverbs—vehemently contested by Job—that adversity sweeps away the wicked while the righteous endure. A different formulation of the same idea occurs in verse 27.
26. Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes. This verse exhibits a different, and more interesting, pattern from the neat antithetical parallelism that governs almost all the lines up to this point: the first verset lays out a simile and the second verset reveals the referent of the simile. This looks rather like a riddle form: what is it that is like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, discoloring the former and making the latter smart? The answer to the riddle is: a fool sent on an errand, who is bound to exasperate whoever has sent him.
29. for the blameless. The translation, following the precedent of several of the ancient versions, revocalizes the Masoretic latom, “for blamelessness,” as latam, “for the blameless.” This small change yields an otherwise missing parallelism: the LORD’s way is a stronghold for the blameless but sheer terror for the wicked.
32. to please, / … perverseness. The antithetical parallelism here provides a clue to one of the connotations of tahapukhot, “perverseness,” in Proverbs. It involves not only acting or speaking in a wrongheaded or contorted way but disconcerting or dismaying others through such behavior, in contrast to the righteous man, whose speech has the capacity to please others and win their goodwill.
1Cheating scales are the LORD’s loathing,
and a true weight-stone His pleasure.
2With a bold face, there comes disgrace,
but wisdom is with the humble.
3The upright’s innocence guides them,
but the falseness of traitors destroys them.
4Wealth avails not on the day of wrath,
but righteousness saves from death.
5The innocent’s righteousness makes his way smooth,
but in his wickedness the wicked man falls.
6The upright’s innocence saves them,
but in disasters are traitors ensnared.
7When a wicked man dies, hope perishes,
and the longing of villains will perish.
8The righteous is rescued from straits, 9and the wicked man comes in his stead. Through speech the tainted man ruins his fellow,
but through knowledge the righteous are rescued.
10When the righteous do well, the city exults,
and when the wicked perish—glad song.
11Through the upright’s blessing a city soars,
and by the mouth of the wicked it is razed.
12Who scorns his fellow man has no sense,
but a man of discernment keeps silent.
13The gossip lays bare secrets,
but the trustworthy conceals the matter.
14For want of designs a people falls,
but there is rescue through many councillors.
15He will surely be shattered who gives bond for a stranger,
but he who hates offering pledge is secure.
16A gracious woman holds fast to honor,
but the arrogant hold fast to wealth.
17A kindly man does good for himself,
but a cruel man blights his own flesh.
18The wicked man makes a false profit,
but who sows righteousness reaps true reward.
19A righteous son is for life,
but the pursuer of evil—for his death.
20The LORD’s loathing are the crooked of heart,
but His pleasure, whose way is blameless.
21Count on it, the evil will not go scot-free,
but the seed of the righteous escapes.
22A golden ring in the snout of a pig,
a lovely woman who lacks good sense.
23The desire of the righteous is only good.
The hope of the wicked is wrath.
24One man is spendthrift and gains all the more,
another saves honestly but comes to want.
25A benign person will flourish,
and he who slakes others’ thirst, his own thirst is slaked.
26Who holds back grain the nation will damn,
but blessing on the provider’s head.
27Who seeks out good pursues favor,
but who looks for evil, it will come to him.
28Who trusts in his wealth, he will fall,
but like a leaf the righteous will burgeon.
29Who blights his house will inherit the wind,
and the dolt is a slave to the wise of heart.
30The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,
and the wise man draws in people.
31If the righteous on earth is requited,
how much more the wicked offender.
CHAPTER 11 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. Cheating scales … / a true weight-stone. Much of the wisdom of Proverbs, as in this verse, is oriented pragmatically toward the world of commerce or labor. Stones marked with a fixed weight were placed on one of the two pans of the scale and the merchandise to be sold on the other pan.
2. bold face … disgrace. The translation emulates the rhyme in the Hebrew of zadon (literally, “arrogance”) and qalon, “disgrace.”
3. traitors. The Hebrew bogdim is used not in a political sense but to describe treacherous or untrustworthy people.
4. righteousness saves from death. This verset is identical with the second verset of 10:2, leading one to suspect that some of these lines are modular constructs from traditional sayings.
5. makes his way smooth. The verb yasher can mean to make straight either horizontally (that is, in contrast to crooked) or vertically (in contrast to rough, uneven). Not falling into a pot-hole, like the wicked in the second verset, suggests the vertical sense.
8. The righteous is rescued from straits, / and the wicked man comes in his stead. In this instance, the two versets create a miniature narrative with an almost comical didactic effect: the just man is rescued or, more precisely, extricated (neḥelats) from a tight spot in which he was jammed, and the wicked is promptly popped into that spot. This little narrative, of course, does not readily correspond to observable reality.
9. Through speech … / through knowledge. There is a pointed contrast between thoughtless or perhaps devious speech (literally, “mouth”) and the knowledge of the wise, which perhaps may not involve speech.
12. but a man of discernment keeps silent. The antithesis to the first verset suggests that there are cases where a discerning person may well feel scorn toward someone but is discreet enough not to express it.
14. a people falls. Some construe the Hebrew ʿam here in the military sense that it sometimes has in narrative prose, where it can mean “troops.” In that case, “rescue,” teshuʿah, in the second verset would reflect its related meaning of “victory.”
16. honor, / … wealth. Elsewhere in Proverbs, these are coordinated terms, not antitheses.
18. reaps. The verb is only implied in the Hebrew.
19. A righteous son. The Masoretic Text reads ken tsedaqah, “thus righteousness,” which does not make much sense and produces a poor parallelism with the second verset in a series of proverbs where the parallelism is usually neat, even pat. This translation adopts a reading shown in some Hebrew manuscripts as well as in the Septuagint and Syriac: ben tsedaqah (literally, “son of righteousness”).
20. whose way is blameless. Literally, “the blameless of way.”
21. Count on it. Literally, “hand to hand.” This appears to be a gesture of shaking hands in order to guarantee something.
22. A golden ring in the snout of a pig. This is another proverb cast in riddle form. This first verset gives us a bizarre and rather shocking image. The second verset spells out the referent of the image, the beautiful woman devoid of sense, and thus becomes a kind of punch line.
23. The hope of the wicked is wrath. Although this clause makes a certain amount of sense as it stands in the Masoretic Text, many scholars adopt the reading of some manuscripts and of the Septuagint, ʾavdah, “perishes,” instead of ʿevrah, “wrath.” This would bring the verset in line with 10:28b, which has nearly identical wording.
25. benign person. Literally, “person of blessing.”
he who slakes. Though this is what the Hebrew verb usually means, the verset is obscure, and the second verb rendered as “slaked” looks textually suspect.
26. grain … / provider’s. Both these terms recall the story of Joseph as viceroy of Egypt providing grain in the famine.
28. he will fall. Some prefer to read instead of the Masoretic yipol a verb differing by one consonant, yibol, “he will wither,” which produces a neater antithesis to the burgeoning leaf in the second verset.
30. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. It is a little problematic that fruit becomes tree, but perhaps the poet was drawn into a certain slackness because “fruit” in biblical usage is so often a lexicalized metaphor for “consequences,” what one produces through his acts.
1Who loves reproof loves knowledge,
but who hates rebuke is a brute.
2The good man finds favor from the LORD,
but He will condemn the cunning schemer.
3A man will not be firm-founded in wickedness,
but the root of the righteous is not shaken.
4A worthy woman is her husband’s crown,
but like rot in his bones a shameful wife.
5The plans of the righteous are justice;
the designs of the wicked, deceit.
6The words of the wicked are a bloody ambush,
but the mouth of the upright will save them.
7Overturn the wicked and they are gone,
but the house of the righteous will stand.
8By his insight will a man be praised,
but the crooked of heart is despised.
Better a scorned man who has a slave
than one who fancies himself honored and lacks bread.
9The righteous man knows the life of his beast,
but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.
10Who works his soil is sated with bread,
but who pursues empty things lacks sense.
12The wicked covets the evil men’s trap,
but the root of the righteous stands firm.
13In the crime of lips is an evil snare,
but the righteous comes out from straits.
14From the fruit of a man’s mouth he is sated with good,
a man gets recompense for his acts.
15The way of a dolt seems right in his eyes,
but who listens to counsel is wise.
16The anger of a dolt becomes known in a trice,
but the shrewd man conceals his disgrace.
17A faithful deposer will tell what is right,
18One may speak out like sword stabs,
but the tongue of the wise is healing.
19True speech stands firm always,
but a mere moment—a lying tongue.
20Deceit is in the heart of plotters of evil,
but councillors of peace have joy.
21No wrong will befall the righteous,
but the wicked are filled with harm.
22The LORD’s loathing—lying lips,
but who act in good faith are His pleasure.
23A shrewd man conceals what he knows,
but the heart of dullards proclaims folly.
24The diligent’s hand will rule,
and the shiftless put to forced labor.
25Worry in a man’s heart brings him low,
but a good word will gladden him.
26The righteous exceeds his fellow man,
but the wicked’s way leads him astray.
27The shiftless will not roast his game,
but a man’s wealth is precious gold.
28On the path of righteousness is life,
but the way of mischief is to death.
CHAPTER 12 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
4. A worthy woman. Fox, hewing to the etymology, renders this as “a woman of strength.”
her husband’s crown, / … rot in his bones. In this instance, the antithesis of the two versets diverges from the general pattern of stereotypical predictability, as in the three preceding lines, to exhibit an energy of biting satiric wit. After the crown image, which is conventional and decorous, the antithetical second verset moves from an adornment sitting on the head to something eating away the bones from within, suggesting that the badness of a bad wife has a more intense effect on the negative side than the goodness of a good wife on the positive side. The object of this strong simile, moreover, “a shameful wife” (one Hebrew word, mevishah), is held back to the very end of the line, thus becoming a kind of punch word.
6. save them. The vague pronominal object would be the victims of the wicked who appear in the first verset.
9. Better a scorned man … /than one who fancies himself. This formulation of “better x than y” is a classic proverb pattern in biblical Hebrew.
10. the mercy of the wicked is cruel. Here the antithesis between versets takes an interesting turn. The righteous man is so compassionate that he has an intuitive sense of the needs and discomforts of his beast. The wicked person, on the other hand, is so utterly devoid of compassion that even what he affects to be an expression of mercy turns out to be cruel.
12. The wicked covets the evil men’s trap. The Hebrew is a little obscure. It could mean that he covets whatever is caught in the evil men’s trap, or perhaps that he envies the malicious ingenuity that is manifested in contriving the trap.
stands firm. This translation reads, with the Septuagint, yikon for the Masoretic yitein, “will give.”
17. a lying witness—deceit. The verb “tell” in the first verset does double duty for this verset, too.
18. sword stabs, / … healing. Even though the image of malicious speech as a cutting sword is conventional, the antithesis between stabbing and healing at the end of the respective versets produces a striking effect.
23. what he knows. Literally, “knowledge.” It is notable in this verse that discretion is thought of as a cardinal virtue of wisdom.
24. the shiftless. The Hebrew remiyah usually means “deceit,” but the context requires something like “slackness.” Perhaps someone failing to do a job he is given is thought to be deceitful for not honoring his commitment out of laziness.
26. exceeds his fellow man. While this is a reasonable construction of the original, the Hebrew looks a little odd and has often invited emendation.
27. The shiftless will not roast his game. Though the idea may well be that a slacker will never enjoy the fruits of his highly dubious labor, the Hebrew is cryptic and the text may be suspect.
a man’s wealth is precious gold. In the implied antithesis, the assiduous person knows how to hang on to his substance.
28. but the way of mischief is to death. The Masoretic Text, wederekh netivah ʾal-mawet, seems to say literally “and the way of path un-death.” This does not sound like intelligible Hebrew. This translation, following a hint from three ancient versions, reads meshuvah, “mischief” (or “waywardness”), for netivah, “path,” and, in accordance with many Hebrew manuscripts, revocalizes ʾal (“not” or “un”) as ʾel, “to.”
1A wise son—through a father’s reproof,
but a scoffer does not heed rebuke.
2From the fruit of a man’s mouth he eats goodly things,
but from the throat of traitors comes outrage.
3Who watches his mouth guards his own life,
who cracks open his lips knows disaster.
4He desires and has naught, the sluggard,
but the life of the diligent thrives.
5A lying word the righteous hates,
but the wicked is stinking and vile.
6Righteousness keeps the blameless,
but wickedness perverts the offender.
7One man feigns riches having nothing at all,
another plays poor, with great wealth.
8The ransom for a man’s life are his riches,
but the poor man will hear no rebuke.
9The light of the righteous shines,
but the lamp of the wicked gutters.
10The empty man in arrogance foments strife,
but with those who take counsel is wisdom.
11Wealth can be less than mere breath,
but who gathers bit by bit makes it grow.
12Drawn-out longing sickens the heart,
but desire come true is a tree of life.
13Who scorns a word will be hurt,
but who fears a command is rewarded.
14A wise man’s teaching is a wellspring of life,
to swerve from the snares of death.
15Good insight gives grace,
but the way of traitors is their ruin.
16Every shrewd man acts through knowledge,
but a dullard broadcasts folly.
17A wicked messenger falls into harm,
but a trusty envoy brings healing.
18Privation and disgrace for one spurning reproof,
but he who takes in rebuke will be honored.
19Desire fulfilled is sweet to the palate,
but fools’ loathing is swerving from evil.
20Who walks with the wise gets wisdom,
but who chases fools is crushed.
21Harm pursues offenders,
but the righteous are paid back with good.
22A good man bequeaths to the sons of his sons,
and stored for the righteous—the wealth of offenders.
23Much food from the furrows of the destitute,
and some are swept away without justice.
24Who spares his rod hates his son,
but who loves him seeks him out for reproof.
25The righteous man eats to satiety,
but the belly of the wicked will want.
CHAPTER 13 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. A wise son—through a father’s reproof. The Hebrew is still more gnomic, just four words without a verb or a preposition—literally, “wise son father’s reproof.”
2. throat. The parallelism with “mouth” in the first verset and the contrast between virtuous and vicious speech suggests that the multivalent nefesh here has the meaning of “throat.” The verb “comes” has been added to clarify the Hebrew, which has no verb, or the merely implied verb “is.”
3. who cracks open his lips knows disaster. Talking can get you into serious trouble, so the prudent man keeps his mouth shut.
4. thrives. More literally, “is luxuriant.”
6. the offender. Reading ḥataʾ for the Masoretic ḥataʾt, “offense.”
7. feigns riches … / plays poor. This proverb is less explicitly didactic than most of the others in the collection: it merely registers, as a warning not to be taken in by appearances, that in the economic realm some people are not what they seem to be.
8. the poor man will hear no rebuke. If the received text is correct, this would mean that whereas the rich man may have to call on his wealth to ransom himself from predators, no one bothers a poor man. Nevertheless, “rebuke,” geʿarah, is a little odd, and some emend it to geʾulah, “redemption,” yielding the sense that the poor man, when he is in a fix, has no resources with which to redeem himself.
9. shines. This translation reads yizrah,̣ “shines,” instead of the Masoretic yismah,̣ “rejoices,” because light rejoicing doesn’t make much sense. Others claim that yismaḥ has a secondary sense of “shine.”
10. empty man. With Fox, the translation revocalizes the Masoretic raq, “only,” to read reiq, “empty” or “worthless.”
11. Wealth can be less than mere breath. Wealth can be evanescent, vanishing overnight, but the person who assiduously gathers it bit by bit—presumably, without undertaking risky ventures with what he has accumulated—will see his resources steadily grow.
13. Who scorns a word. The clear implication is that this is a word of reproof.
15. is their ruin. The received text reads, oddly, ʾeytan, “is staunch [or strong].” The translation follows the Septuagint and the Syriac, which appear to have had ʾeydam, “their ruin,” in the Hebrew text from which they translated.
17. brings healing. The Hebrew says literally “is healing.”
19. to the palate. The Hebrew nefesh would be literally “throat,” or at least that is the meaning assumed here because of the verb yeʿerav, “is sweet.” But it could also mean “to the essential being.”
22. offenders. The Hebrew uses a singular noun.
23. Much food from the furrows of the destitute. This proverb is cryptic. Perhaps, like verse 7, it might be a worldly observation on the contradictory nature of reality: destitute people have fields from which an abundant yield could be extracted, but they can’t figure out how to do it; others are suddenly destroyed by disease or disaster for no good reason. The burden of this line sounds more like Qohelet than Proverbs. Fox emends the text to yield “the great devour the tillage of the poor.”
24. Who spares his rod hates his son. The Hebrew exhibits a pointed compactness, underscored by internal rhyme and assonance, that defies translation: ḥoseikh shivto soneiʾ beno.
25. to satiety. The literal sense of the Hebrew nafsho is “for the sating of his appetite [or gullet].”
1Wisdom has built her house,
and Folly with her own hands destroys it.
2Who walks in uprightness fears the LORD,
and he of twisted ways does despise Him.
3In the mouth of the dolt is a rod of pride,
but the lips of the wise will guard them.
4Without any oxen the manger is clean,
but there is much yield in the bull’s strength.
5A trustworthy witness does not lie,
but the lying deposer is a false witness.
6The scoffer seeks wisdom in vain,
but knowledge for the discerning is easy.
7Go before a foolish man,
you will not learn from him knowing speech.
8The shrewd man’s wisdom is to understand his own way,
but the folly of dullards deceives them.
9Guilt dwells in the tents of scoffers,
but among the upright—favor.
10The heart knows its own bitterness,
and in its joy no stranger mingles.
11The house of the wicked will be destroyed,
and the tent of the upright will flourish.
12There may be a straight way before a man,
but its end is the ways of death.
13Even in laughter the heart may ache,
14From his ways the impure of heart is sated,
and the good man from his deeds.
15A dupe will believe everything,
but the shrewd man understands where he steps.
16A wise man is cautious and swerves from evil,
but a fool rages and trusts too much.
17A short-tempered man commits folly,
but a cunning man will be raised high.
18Dupes will inherit folly,
but the shrewd wear a crown of knowledge.
19The evil bow before the good,
and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.
20The poor man is hated even by his neighbor,
but the rich man has many who love him.
21Who scorns his neighbor offends,
but happy he who pities the poor.
22Surely those who plan evil do stray,
but steadfast kindness for those who plan good.
23In all hard labor there is profit,
but word of the lips is sheer loss.
24The crown of the wise is shrewdness;
the garland of dullards is folly.
25A true witness saves lives,
a lying deposer fosters deceit.
26In fear of the LORD there is a stronghold,
and for one’s sons it is a shelter.
27Fear of the LORD is a wellspring of life,
to swerve from the snares of death.
28In the people’s multitude is the king’s glory,
but when the nation is absent—the ruler’s disaster.
29Patience means great discernment,
but impatience multiplies folly.
30A healing heart is life to the body,
but envy is rot in the bones.
31Who oppresses the poor insults his Maker,
but he honors Him who pities the wretched.
32In his evil the wicked is driven off,
but the righteous finds shelter in his innocence.
33In a discerning heart wisdom rests
but is not known in the midst of fools.
34Righteousness raises a nation,
but offense leads to want among peoples.
35A king’s pleasure is a discerning servant,
but his wrath is the shameful man.
CHAPTER 14 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. Wisdom has built her house. This verset is identical with the first verset of 9:1, except that here the Masoretic Text adds nashim, “women” or “of women,” after “Wisdom.” That word looks suspect as idiomatic usage, and one may concur in the proposal of R. B. Y. Scott that it is a scribal gloss. Accordingly, it is omitted in the translation. In any case, the momentary appearance in this section of Proverbs of the allegorical apparatus from the preceding (but presumably later) section, chapters 1–9, is anomalous.
3. the mouth of the dolt … / the lips of the wise. The contrast is between arrogantly aggressive speech (the “rod of pride”) and prudent, self-protective speech.
4. Without any oxen the manger is clean. This entire line has the ring of a canny folk saying: your manger may remain clean when you have no oxen to feed, but it is the strength of the ox, however he dirties manger and barn, that enables you to reap a harvest.
5. A trustworthy witness … / the lying deposer. This is one of those proverbs that verge on tautology.
7. knowing speech. Literally, “lips of knowledge.”
8. the folly of dullards deceives them. Literally, “the folly of dullards is deceit.” Given the antithetical parallelism with the first verset, this has to mean not that they are deceitful but that they deceive themselves.
9. Guilt dwells in the tents of scoffers. The received text looks defective here. It reads, literally, “dolts scoffs [sic] [or “intercedes”] guilt,” ʾewilim yelits ʾasham. Taking a hint from the Septuagint, this translation instead reads beʾohaley letsim yalin ʾasham.
10. The heart knows its own bitterness. In the midst of didactic platitudes, we suddenly get an arresting aphorism about the incommensurability of each person’s private experience.
12. its end is the ways of death. The repetition of “way” from the first verset is a little awkward. That effect might be at least mitigated if one adopted Tur-Sinai’s proposed emendation of ʾaḥarit to ʾorḥotaw, yielding “its paths are the ways to death.”
13. the end of. The Masoretic Text has “its end.”
14. ways … / deeds. It doesn’t seem that an opposition is expressed. We are left with the rather bland statement that both the evil man and the good man live with the consequences of what they do.
17. will be raised high. The Masoretic Text reads yisaneiʾ, “will be hated,” which is questionable. This translation reads, with the Septuagint, yinaseiʾ, “will be lifted up” or “will be raised high,” a simple transposition of consonants.
19. at the gates of the righteous. That is, they court them, bow down to them at the entrance of their homes.
24. shrewdness. The received text reads ʿoshram, “their wealth,” an improbable candidate as the crown of the wise. The Septuagint, more plausibly, has ʿormah, “shrewdness.”
the garland. The received text reads “The folly of dullards is folly.” Instead of this tautology, this translation, following many critics, reads liwyat, “garland of,” instead of ʾiwelet, “folly.”
25. fosters deceit. The verb—there is none in the Hebrew—is added for clarification.
28. ruler’s. The translation reads rozen for the Masoretic razon, “famine.”
29. multiplies. The received text has “lifts up,” merim, but three ancient versions show marbeh, “multiplies.”
30. A healing heart. Presumably, the heart is healing because it feels something like equanimity, in contrast to the corrosive envy in the antithetical second verset.
32. the righteous finds shelter in his innocence. The Masoretic Text says “in his death,” bemoto, which is problematic theologically and perhaps grammatically as well. The translation follows the Septuagint and the Syriac, which read betumo, “in his innocence,” which is a simple transposition of consonants and thus an error a scribe could easily make, possibly induced by the motive of later piety.
33. but is not known. The Masoretic Text lacks the “not,” but this is surely a scribal error because it is hard to imagine that there would be a declaration in Proverbs that wisdom is known in the midst of fools.
34. want. Following scholarly consensus and the Septuagint, this translation replaces the Masoretic ḥesed, “kindness,” with ḥeser, “want.” The difference between the Hebrew graphemes for d and r is quite small. The phrase “leads to” has been added in the translation for clarification of the Hebrew, which has no verb.
CHAPTER 15
1A soft answer turns back wrath,
but a hurtful word stirs anger.
2The tongue of the wise improves knowledge,
but the mouth of dullards bubbles with folly.
3The eyes of the LORD are everywhere,
watching the evil and the good.
4Healing speech is a tree of life,
but perverse speech breaks the spirit.
5A dolt will spurn his father’s reproof,
but who heeds rebuke gains shrewdness.
6Great treasure is in the righteous man’s house,
but the yield of the wicked is blighted.
7The lips of the wise spread knowledge—
not so, the heart of fools.
8The wicked’s sacrifice is the LORD’s loathing,
but the prayer of the upright, His pleasure.
9The LORD’s loathing is the way of the wicked man,
but He loves the pursuer of righteousness.
10Harsh reproof for him who forsakes the path,
who hates rebuke will die.
11Sheol and Perdition are before the LORD,
how much more so the hearts of men.
12A scoffer does not love it when one rebukes him,
to the wise he will not go.
13A glad heart will brighten the face,
but by the heart’s pain the spirit is lamed.
14A discerning heart seeks knowledge,
but the mouth of dullards chases folly.
15All the days of the poor man are miserable,
but a cheerful man has a perpetual feast.
16Better a pittance in the fear of the LORD
than great treasure with turmoil.
17Better a meal of greens where there is love
than a fatted ox where there is hatred.
18A hot-tempered man stirs up strife,
but a patient man quiets quarrel.
19The sluggard’s way is like a hedge of thorns,
but the path of the upright is smooth.
20A wise son gladdens his father,
but a foolish man scorns his mother.
21Folly is joy to the senseless,
but a man of discernment walks straight.
22Plans are thwarted where there is no counsel,
but with many advisors they are carried out.
23There is joy for a man in an apt answer,
and how good is a timely word!
24A path of life upward for the man of insight,
that he may swerve from Sheol below.
25The house of the proud will the LORD uproot,
but He sets firm the widow’s boundary stone.
26An evil man’s plots are the LORD’s loathing,
but the sayings of the pure are sweet.
27He blights his house whose gain is ill gotten,
but the hater of bribes shall live.
28The righteous man’s heart utters truth,
but the mouth of the wicked bubbles with evils.
29The LORD is far from the wicked,
but the prayer of the righteous He hears.
30What brightens the eyes gladdens the heart,
and good news puts sap in the bones.
31An ear hearing rebuke for life
in the midst of the wise will abide.
32Who casts off reproof despises himself,
but he who heeds rebuke gets understanding.
33The LORD’s fear is wisdom’s foundation,
and humility comes before honor.
CHAPTER 15 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
4. perverse speech breaks the spirit. The Hebrew wording is crabbed, and there could be a textual problem in this verset. Here is a very literal rendering: “and a perversion in it is a break in the spirit.” The translation for clarity repeats “speech” (more literally, “tongue”) from the first verset because “in it,” bah, refers to “speech.”
6. the yield. The received text has “in the yield,” but some Hebrew manuscripts, the Septuagint, and the Syriac do not show “in.”
11. Sheol and Perdition are before the LORD, / how much more so the hearts of men. This line departs from the predominant antithesis between the two versets to employ an a fortiori pattern: proposition (first verset) followed by how much more so (second verset). The effect here is quite striking. The vast depths of the realm of death (Sheol and Perdition are synonyms, not distinct entities) lie transparently exposed to the LORD’s scrutiny, which therefore can penetrate the human heart with incomparably greater ease. This structure thus produces a powerful statement of how completely God knows all our most innermost thoughts.
13. by the heart’s pain the spirit is lamed. More literally, “the heart’s pain is a lamed spirit.”
15. a cheerful man. The literal sense is “good-hearted,” but in biblical idiom, to be of good heart does not mean kindness or benevolence but rather a good mood.
16. treasure. The Hebrew ʾotsar means either storehouse or, by metonymy, what it contains.
20. a foolish man scorns his mother. In light of the parallelism with the first verset, this does not mean that he deliberately scorns his mother because he is a fool but rather that his being a fool has the effect of humiliating his hapless mother.
22. Plans are thwarted. This verse, like several others in this chapter, pronounces a piece of prudential wisdom that verges on truism or banality.
23. an apt answer. Literally, “his mouth’s answer.”
25. boundary stone. These were used to mark the borders of a person’s property. Thus the possessions of the vulnerable widow are safeguarded by God.
26. but the sayings of the pure are sweet. The Hebrew of the received text reads “and the sweet sayings are pure,” wetehorim ʾimrey-noʿam. This translation adopts the reading of the Septuagint, which appears to reflect a Hebrew text that showed weʾimrey tehorim yinʿamu.
28. utters truth. The Masoretic Text reads “utters to answer,” but the Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Targum all seem to reflect a Hebrew text that read ʾemunim, “truth,” “true things,” “trustworthiness,” instead of la’anot.
33. wisdom’s foundation. The Masoretic Text has musar ḥokhmah, “the reproof of wisdom,” which is conceivable but odd. This translation adopts a small, widely proposed emendation, musad, “foundation,” for musar. This would bring the verset in line with several statements in Proverbs that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.
CHAPTER 16
1Man’s is the ordering of thought,
but from the LORD is the tongue’s pronouncing.
2All a man’s ways are pure in his eyes,
but the LORD takes the spirit’s measure.
3Turn over your deeds to the LORD,
that your plans may be firm-founded.
4Each act of the LORD has its own end;
even the wicked, for an evil day.
5The LORD’s loathing is every haughty man,
be sure of it, he will not go scot-free.
6In faithful kindness a crime is atoned,
and in the LORD’s fear one swerves from evil.
7When the LORD is pleased with the ways of a man,
even his enemies will make peace with him.
8Better a pittance in righteousness,
than abundant yield without justice.
9A man’s heart may plan his way,
but the LORD will make his step firm.
10There is magic on the lips of a king—
his mouth won’t betray in judgment.
11A balance and just scale has the LORD,
all the weights in His purse are His work.
12Wicked acts are the loathing of kings,
for in righteousness a throne stands firm.
13Righteous lips are the pleasure of kings,
and they love an honest speaker.
14A king’s wrath is like death’s messengers,
but a wise man may appease it.
15In the light of a king’s face is life,
and his pleasure like a cloud with spring rain.
16Getting wisdom, how much better than gold,
to get discernment is choicer than silver.
17The uprights’ highway is to swerve from evil,
who guards his life will watch his way.
18Pride before a breakdown,
and before stumbling, haughtiness.
19Better abjectness with the humble
than sharing spoils with the proud.
20Who looks into a matter will come out well,
and who trusts in the LORD is fortunate.
21The wise of heart will be called discerning,
and sweet speech will increase instruction.
22Insight is a wellspring of life to its possessors,
but the reproof of the foolish is folly.
23A wise man’s heart will make his mouth clever,
and lips’ sweetness increases instruction.
24Pleasant sayings are honeycomb,
sweet to the palate, and healing to the bones.
25There may be a straight way before a man,
but its end is the ways of death.
26The toiler’s self toils away
because his own mouth has compelled him.
27A worthless man is a furnace of evil,
and on his lips like burning fire.
28A perverse man provokes a quarrel,
and a sullen man drives off a friend.
29A lawless man gulls his companion
and leads him on a way that is not good.
30He closes his eyes plotting perversions,
purses his lips and fixes on evil.
31Gray hair is a crown of splendor,
through righteousness attained.
32Better patience than a warrior,
and who governs his spirit than a conqueror of towns.
33In the lap the lot is cast,
but from the LORD is all the disposing.
CHAPTER 16 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. from the LORD is the tongue’s pronouncing. Throughout Proverbs, apt and articulate speech is conceived as a key to relationships among people and as the indispensable instrument of wisdom. Thus, a person orders his own thought because the autonomy of consciousness is not questioned, but it is a gift from God when thought is translated into fitting speech. The Hebrew rendered here as “pronouncing,” maʿaneh, can mean either speaking out or answering.
4. Each act … has its own end; / even the wicked. Reality may seem contradictory or disturbing, but God determines a purpose for all things, so that even the wicked, however outrageous their acts, are destined to come to a bad end, thus confirming the just system of divine purpose in all things.
6. In faithful kindness … / in the LORD’s fear. The combination of complacent piety and platitude, one must say, is manifested in a good many of the proverbs and is especially salient in this chapter.
9. A man’s heart may plan his way. This proverb is closely analogous to the one in verse 1, except that here it is action (“step”) rather than speech that is determined by God.
10. There is magic on the lips of a king. In Proverbs the faith in God’s authority and justice is repeatedly accompanied by a confidence in the established political order—here the order of justice implemented by kings. This political stance is one of several in Proverbs with which Qohelet takes issue.
11. balance … scale / … weights. These instruments for conducting trade, elsewhere in Proverbs referred to literally, are here a metaphor for the fairness and precision with which God judges the world.
13. they love. The Hebrew verb is in the singular and should be either emended to read as a plural or revocalized to read as a passive (“is loved”).
17. The uprights’ highway is to swerve from evil. This verset plays paradoxically with two spatial terms. The “upright” is literally “the straight ones,” “those who go straight.” Usually to “swerve” (sur) means to veer off from a straight path. Here, however, swerving from evil means going on the straight way.
20. Who looks into a matter … / who trusts in the LORD. This verse is another instance of the joining of platitude with piety.
23. make his mouth clever, / … lips’ sweetness. In a variation on the proverb of verse 1, here it is wisdom rather than God that produces apt and captivating speech.
24. sweet to the palate. The literal sense of the Hebrew noun nefesh in this context is “throat.”
25. This verse is identical with 14:12.
26. The toiler’s self toils away. This proverb is a little cryptic. Some interpreters understand “self,” nefesh, in its sense of “appetite,” and then construe “mouth” in the second verset as a metonymy for “hunger”—that is, the laborer is driven to toil by his own hunger. This translation construes the second half of the line as a reference to injudicious speech: because the worker has involved himself in debt by making an indiscreet commitment, he is obliged to labor in order to pay what he owes. This understanding would set this verse in contrast to the celebration of wise speech in verses 23 and 24.
27. a furnace of evil. The Masoretic Text reads koreh raʿah, “digs up evil.” The translation adapts a widely accepted emendation, kur (“furnace of “) raʿah.
30. closes his eyes … / purses his lips. Though there is some debate about the meaning of this verse, the likely intention is simply a kind of caricature of the wicked man who exhibits these facial gestures as he plots evil. The received text shows ʿotseh, which is not a comprehensible word, for “closes,” but the widely accepted emendation of ʿotsem yields the ordinary Hebrew verb for closing the eyes.
31. through righteousness. The Hebrew says “through the way of righteousness.” “The way” has been dropped from the translation to avoid cumbersomeness since it is in any case clearly implied.
33. In the lap the lot is cast. Although not much is known about the mechanics of casting lots in ancient Israel, it would seem that the lot was dropped into the lap of a seated person.
CHAPTER 17
1Better a dry crust with tranquillity
than a house filled with feasting and quarrel.
2A clever slave rules over a son who shames,
and in the midst of brothers will share the inheritance.
3Silver has a crucible and gold a kiln,
and the LORD tries hearts.
4An evildoer listens to wicked speech,
a liar hearkens to calamitous talk.
5Who mocks the poor insults his Maker,
who rejoices in ruin will not go scot-free.
6The crown of the elders is sons of sons,
and the glory of sons, their fathers.
7Unfit for a scoundrel, overweening speech,
much less for a nobleman, lying speech.
8A bribe is a gemstone in the eyes of its user;
wherever he turns he will prosper.
9Who overlooks faults seeks love,
and who repeats a speech drives off a friend.
10A rebuke comes down on a discerning man,
more than a hundred blows on a fool.
11Sheer rebellion an evil man seeks,
but a cruel agent will be against him.
12Better meet a bear bereft of its cubs,
than a dolt in his folly.
13Who gives back evil for good,
evil will not depart from his house.
14Like opening a sluice is a quarrel’s start—
before strife flares up, let it go.
15Who acquits the wicked or condemns the just,
the LORD’s loathing are they both.
16Why is there a fee in the hand of the fool
to buy wisdom when he has no sense?
17At all times a companion is loving,
and a brother was born for the hour of trouble.
18A senseless man offers his hand,
stands bond for his fellow man.
19Who loves crime loves dissension,
who builds a high doorway seeks a downfall.
20A crooked man will come to no good,
and the perverse of speech will fall into harm.
21One begets a fool to one’s own grief,
and a scoundrel’s father will not rejoice.
22A joyful heart can effect a cure,
but a lamed spirit dries up the bones.
23Bribe from his bosom the wicked man takes
to tilt the paths of justice.
24Right in front of the discerning is wisdom,
but the fool’s eyes are on the ends of the earth.
25Vexation to his father, a foolish son,
and gall to her who bore him.
26To punish the just is surely not good,
to flog nobles for uprightness.
27Who is sparing in speech knows knowledge,
and coolheaded is the man of discerning.
28A silent dolt, too, may be reckoned wise,
who seals his lips, may be deemed discerning.
CHAPTER 17 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. feasting. Literally, “sacrifice,” which is to say, choice cuts left over from the sacrifices. See the comment on 7:14.
2. slave … / share the inheritance. This declaration does not necessarily reflect social or economic reality but is better understood as a kind of hyperbole: cleverness trumps heredity if the heir in question is a fool or a scoundrel.
5. rejoices in ruin. On the basis of the phrase used here, sameaḥ leʾeyd, modern Hebrew has appropriately adopted simḥah leʾeyd as its term for schadenfreude.
7. overweening speech. The meaning of yeter (related to the term that means “more”) is not entirely clear. It could mean something like “highfalutin,” though the King James Version’s “excellent” is rather unlikely.
8. a gemstone … / wherever he turns he will prosper. Some interpreters claim, on tenuous contextual grounds, that the Hebrew noun means “magic stone.” The more likely meaning is that the bribe, like a precious stone, provides a person a resource that opens doors for him. In any case, the resource is “in the eyes of” the briber, and hence the prospering is not a stated fact but what this person imagines.
10. a rebuke … / a hundred blows. In this instance, the comparison is vividly effective: a sensitive, discerning person will feel the bite of a verbal rebuke more than the callous fool feels a severe beating.
11. a cruel agent. This whole verse reflects the cautiously pragmatic political conservatism of Proverbs: if you are imprudent enough to willfully rebel against the government, it will send its ruthless agents to eliminate you.
12. Better meet a bear bereft of its cubs. In this instance, the “better than” (the compact Hebrew lacks the usual tov) pattern combines with the riddle form: What could be worse than encountering a bear robbed of its cubs? Running into a fool.
16. a fee. In other contexts, this Hebrew noun means “price.” It has been plausibly inferred from this line that there was some general practice of paying teachers for wisdom instruction of the kind one finds in Proverbs.
17. the hour of trouble. “Hour” has been added for the sake of intelligibility.
18. offers his hand, / stands bond. Both phrases refer to offering financial surety for someone, an act considered imprudent in Proverbs.
19. a downfall. More literally, “a break,” which is to say, disaster.
24. Right in front of the discerning. The Hebrew says literally “with the face of [or with the presence of].” The idea is that wisdom is right before the eyes of the discerning, whereas fools misguidedly look for it at the ends of the earth.
27. coolheaded. Literally, “cool of spirit.” This idiom is not otherwise attested, and hence the meaning is not entirely certain. The marginal gloss in the Masoretic Text corrects qar, “cool,” to yeqar, “precious” or “rare,” which does not help matters. Attempts to make this phrase mean “reticent” rest on shaky premises.
28. A silent dolt, too, may be reckoned wise. This proverb builds on the preceding one: a wise person is sparing in speech out of good sense and prudence, but a fool may give the appearance of wisdom by keeping his mouth shut.
CHAPTER 18
1A loner seeks a pretext,
where one needs prudence, he is exposed.
2A fool does not care for discerning
but for exposing his inner thoughts.
3When a wicked man comes, scorn comes, too,
and with disgrace, shame.
4Deep waters the words a man utters,
a flowing brook, the wellspring of wisdom.
5To favor the wicked is not good,
to skew the case of the innocent.
6The lips of the fool lead to quarrels,
and his mouth calls out for blows.
7A fool’s mouth is a disaster for him,
and his lips a snare for his life.
8The words of a grumbler are like pounding,
and they go down to the belly’s chambers.
9He who is slack at his task
is a brother to one who destroys.
10The name of the LORD is a tower of strength,
the righteous runs to it and is protected.
11The rich man’s wealth is his fortress city,
like a high wall within its hedge.
12Before a downfall a man’s heart is proud,
and before honor, humility.
13Who answers a word before hearing it out,
it is folly for him and disgrace.
14A man’s spirit sustains him in his illness,
but a lamed spirit who can bear?
15A discerning heart will get knowledge,
and the ear of the wise will seek knowledge.
16A man’s gift clears the way for him,
and leads him before the great.
17First to speak in his dispute seems right,
till his fellow man comes and searches him out.
18The lot puts an end to strife,
and separates the disputants.
19A brother wronged is like a fortress city,
and strife like the bolt of a palace.
20From the fruit of a man’s mouth his belly is sated,
he will sate the yield of his lips.
21Death and life are in the tongue’s power,
and those who love it will eat its fruit.
22Who finds a wife, finds a good thing
and wins favor from the LORD.
23Imploringly speaks the poor man,
and the rich man answers harshly.
24There is a companionable man to keep company with,
and there’s a friend closer than a brother.
CHAPTER 18 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. A loner seeks a pretext. The received text reads “desire,” taʾawah. The translation follows the Septuagint, which reflects toʾeinah, “pretext.”
where one needs prudence, he is exposed. The Hebrew says merely “wherever prudence, he bursts out,” or “is exposed”; “one needs” has been added in translation as an interpretive guess. The sense of the whole verse might be: a person cut off from other people constantly looks for a quarrel and by so doing shamefully exposes his own weaknesses in the very situations that call for prudence.
2. A fool does not care for discerning. This proverb on the lack of discretion is paired thematically with the preceding proverb. There are several such pairings in this chapter.
his inner thoughts. Literally, “his heart.”
4. the words a man utters. Literally, “the words of a man’s mouth.”
6. lead to quarrels. Literally, “enter into quarrel.”
7. A fool’s mouth is a disaster for him. This proverb about the damaging consequences of ill-considered speech is explicitly paired with the preceding proverb.
11. within its hedge. This translation follows the Septuagint and three other ancient versions in reading bemesukato for the Masoretic bemaskito (“in his imagining”?).
14. A man’s spirit sustains him in his illness. This is one of several declarations in Proverbs about the therapeutic effect of mood or mind—a notion that still seems medically relevant after two and a half millennia.
16. A man’s gift. The gift in question might be a bribe, or perhaps something resembling the contribution that a lobbyist makes to a legislator.
17. First to speak in his dispute. “To speak” is merely implied in the Hebrew.
18. The lot puts an end to strife. The evident idea is that when there is a dispute with no clear way to resolve it, something like the toss of a coin can bring it to an end.
19. A brother wronged. The formulation in the original is a little cryptic. The most likely meaning: if you wrong someone close to you, he becomes bristlingly defensive, shutting himself off from you like a fortified city.
20. the fruit of a man’s mouth. As elsewhere, the exercise of speech is seen as decisive, producing consequences for good or for ill with which the speaker must live. This proverb is clearly paired with the one that follows.
21. those who love it will eat its fruit. The choice of the verb “love” is revealing in regard to the underlying attitude toward language. A cultivated person delights in language and takes pleasure in its apt use, and this exercise of well-considered expression will redound to his profit. In this fashion, the ethic of articulate speech in Proverbs mirrors the form of the proverbs themselves, which, at least in intention, are finely honed articulations of wisdom, often exhibiting concise wit.
23. Imploringly … / harshly. The contrast between the hapless poor man and the rich man who has power over him is pointedly expressed in a tight antithetical chiasm (an instance of the use of the power of the tongue by one who loves it): imploringly (a), poor man (b), rich man (b’), harshly (a’).
24. a companionable man … / a friend closer than a brother. Although the chapter divisions are not original to the text, the textual unit from verse 1 to verse 24 is neatly marked by an antithetical envelope structure: in the first verse, we see someone who is isolated or separated from others, focusing on his own desire, and who consequently gets into trouble; this last verse affirms the sustaining power of friendship. Fox suggests a nuance of contrast between the first verset and the second: there are companionable people with whom one may enjoy social intercourse, but there are also intimate friends closer than a brother.
CHAPTER 19
1Better a poor man walking in his innocence,
than a man twisted in speech who is a fool.
2It is surely not good to lack knowledge,
and who hurries with his feet offends.
3A man’s folly perverts his way,
and his heart rages against the LORD.
4Wealth will give one many friends,
but the poor is parted from his friend.
5A false witness will not go scot-free,
and a lying deposer will not escape.
6Many court the favor of a nobleman,
and all are friends to a man with gifts.
7All a poor man’s brothers despise him,
even more, his friends draw back from him.
[They are not pursuers of sayings.]
8Who acquires good sense cares for himself,
who guards discernment will find good.
9A false witness will not go scot-free,
and a lying deposer will perish.
10Unfit for the fool is pleasure,
even more, for a slave to rule princes.
11A man’s insight gives him patience,
and his glory, to overlook a fault.
12A roar like a lion’s, the wrath of a king,
but like dew on the grass his favor.
13Disaster to his father, a foolish son,
and a maddening drip, a nagging wife.
14House and wealth are deeded by parents,
but a clever wife is from the LORD.
15Sloth induces slumber,
and a shiftless person will go hungry.
16Who keeps a command keeps his own life,
who scorns his own ways will die.
17Who pities the poor makes a loan to the LORD,
and his reward He will pay back to him.
18Reprove your son while there is hope,
and to his moaning pay no heed.
19A very hotheaded man bears punishment,
try to save him—you will make things worse.
20Heed counsel and take reproof,
that you get wisdom in the end.
21Many are the plans in the heart of a man,
but it’s the LORD’s counsel that is fulfilled.
22A man’s desire is his own lack,
and better a poor man than a liar.
23Fear of the LORD is for life,
and one rests sated, untouched by harm.
24The sluggard hides his hand in the dish,
he won’t even bring it up to his mouth.
25Beat the scoffer and the dupe becomes shrewd,
rebuke the discerning and he gains knowledge.
26Despoiling a father,
putting a mother to flight, is the shaming disgraceful son.
27A son ceases to heed reproof,
28A worthless witness scoffs justice,
and the mouth of the wicked swallows crime.
29Retribution is readied for scoffers,
and blows for the backs of fools.
CHAPTER 19 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. walking in his innocence, / … twisted in speech. Walking in innocence suggests the recurrent image of walking on a straight way and so becomes a neat antithesis of twisted speech.
a fool. A few manuscripts read instead “rich.”
2. It is surely not good. The Hebrew wording is cryptic.
4. Wealth will give one many friends. This whole line is one of the instances in which Proverbs offers not moral instruction but a disenchanted observation (like Qohelet) about the way things are: people flock around the rich and avoid the poor. Verse 6 makes essentially the same point.
7. They are not pursuers of sayings. The translation reflects the opaque wording of the Hebrew. The verset is textually suspect and may not belong at all because there are no triadic lines elsewhere in this whole section of Proverbs—hence the brackets here.
10. Unfit for the fool is pleasure. A wise person knows how to manage pleasure judiciously, but a fool will choose harmful pleasures or pursue pleasure to excess. This predisposition for the aristocracy of wisdom goes hand in glove with the affirmation of social hierarchy in the second verset.
12. A roar like a lion’s … / dew on the grass. The contrast between the king’s wrath and his favorable disposition is effectively highlighted by the move from the simile of the carnivore roaring before it tears apart its prey to the gentle descent of dew on grass.
13. maddening. The literal sense of the Hebrew tored is “driving away.”
a nagging wife. The literal sense is “quarrels of a wife,” but the context amply justifies this translation.
14. a clever wife. Though this phrase could also be construed as “a clever woman,” the proverb suggests that a man may depend on his parents for the inheritance of wealth and house, but God alone can grant him the gift (or good luck) of a clever wife.
19. A very hotheaded man. The translation follows the Masoretic marginal correction, gedol, instead of the unintelligible gerol of the consonantal text.
try to save him. This is another instance in which each Hebrew word of the received text is comprehensible but they make little sense together, so the translation is conjectural. A very literal rendering would be “but if you save and you still would add.”
21. Many are the plans in the heart of a man. This proverb is manifestly a Hebrew equivalent of “man proposes and God disposes.”
22. his own lack. The Masoretic Text reads “his own kindness” (ḥesed). The translation adopts an emendation proposed by Tur-Sinai, ḥeser, “lack,” mindful that there are many scribal confusions between the letter resh and the similar-looking dalet.
23. one rests sated, untouched by harm. Again, the Hebrew is rather cryptic and the translation an interpretive guess.
24. hides his hand in the dish. In this proverb, one sees a satiric, and hyperbolic, relation between the first verset and the second. The reader initially wonders why the sluggard hides his hand—or, literally, “buries it”—in the dish, and then discovers that he’s too lazy to lift it up to his mouth. The hyperbole in this way conveys the reiterated point that a lazy person fails to provide for his own basic needs.
25. Beat the scoffer … / rebuke the discerning. This proverb is a variation on the idea expressed in 17:10—a whipping may beat sense into a fool, but a word of rebuke suffices for the wise.
27. A son ceases. The translation adopts the Septuagint here, reading ḥadel ben instead of the Masoretic ḥadal beni, “cease, my son.”
murmuring evil sayings. The received text reads lishgot meʾimrey daʿat, “to dote from [?] sayings of knowledge.” The translation follows the Septuagint, which seems to have read in the Hebrew lahagot maʾamarim raʿim.
29. Retribution. Thus the Masoretic Text. Many scholars prefer to emend shefatim to she-vatim, “rods,” which is to say, “blows.”
CHAPTER 20
1Wine is a scoffer, strong drink is rowdy,
all who dote on them get no wisdom.
2A roar like a lion—a king’s terror,
who provokes him mortally offends.
3It honors a man to sit back from a quarrel,
but any dolt will jump right in.
4After winter the sluggard does not plow,
he asks in the harvest and has nothing.
5Deep waters the counsel in a man’s heart,
but a man of discernment draws them up.
6Many a man is called faithful partner,
but who can find a trustworthy person?
7The righteous man goes about in his innocence.
Happy his children after him!
8A king seated on the throne of judgment
sifts out all evil with his eyes.
9Who can say, “I declare my heart pure.
I am clean of my offense”?
10Two different weight-stones, two different measures—
the LORD’s loathing are they both.
11In his deeds a lad may dissemble
though his acts be upright and pure.
12An ear that hears and an eye that sees,
the LORD made them both.
13Do not love sleep, lest you lose all your worth,
keep your eyes open and be sated with bread.
14“Bad, bad,” says the buyer,
and he goes away and then preens himself.
15There is gold with abundance of rubies,
but lips of knowledge are a precious vessel.
16Take his garment, for he stood bond for another,
and for strangers, take his pledge.
17Bread got through fraud may be sweet to a man,
but in the end it fills his mouth with gravel.
18Plans set through counsel will be fulfilled,
and you should make war through designs.
19Laying bare secrets the gossip goes round;
don’t trust yourself to a blabbermouth.
20Who reviles his father and his mother,
his lamp will gutter in pitch darkness.
21An estate gained hastily from the start,
its end will not be blessed.
22Do not say, “Let me pay back evil.”
Hope for the LORD, that He give you victory.
23Two different weight-stones are the LORD’s loathing,
and cheating scales are not good.
24From the LORD are the steps of a man,
and how can a person grasp his own way?
25It’s a snare for a man to utter “Sanctified,”
and after the vows to reflect.
26A wise king sifts out the wicked
and turns the wheel over them.
27The LORD’s lamp is the life-breath of man,
laying bare all the inward chambers.
28Let a king keep faithful trust,
that he uphold his throne in faithfulness.
29The splendor of young men is their strength,
and the glory of elders, gray hair.
30With fearsome bruises scour away evil,
and blows to the belly’s chambers.
CHAPTER 20 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. strong drink. A persuasive argument has been made that the Hebrew sheikhar is a strong drink made from grapes, which is to say, grappa.
3. will jump right in. The general sense of the verb yitgalaʿ is to burst out—here, perhaps, in rage. There is some doubt about its meaning in this context.
6. who can find a trustworthy person. This proverb is one of many that does not offer direct advice but instead registers a cautionary observation about human behavior. The trust in the moral perceptiveness of the king expressed in verse 8 and elsewhere is the antithesis to this realistic skepticism.
9. I declare my heart pure. It is also possible to construe the Hebrew verb here to mean “I have made my heart pure.”
11. In his deeds a lad may dissemble. The proverb is understood in this translation to be a comment on a paradoxical possibility of human behavior: even though a young person’s acts may be perfectly honest, he may nevertheless use them to create a false impression.
14. he goes away and then preens himself. What appears to be involved is a satiric vignette of a particular kind of consumer: he dismisses the merchandise as utterly inferior, whether it is or not, and then goes off empty-handed, congratulating himself on his own acumen. Alternately, one could emend the verb ʾozel, “goes away,” to huzal, “is cheapened,” as Heinrich Graetz proposed in the nineteenth century. This would yield the following miniature narrative: first the prospective buyer denigrates the merchandise; then the price comes down and he buys it, praising himself for his shrewdness.
16. Take his garment. Here the reiterated warning against offering bond for another is cast as an imperative: take his garment or whatever he has put up as security, seeing that he has been foolish enough to expose himself to this sort of risk.
22. “Let me pay back evil.” / Hope for the LORD, that He give you victory. This admonition may recall the story of David and Abigail in 1 Samuel 25. David, enraged when his men are insulted by her husband, Nabal, is on his way to wreak vengeance, but Abigail implores him not to shed blood and have his own hand “rescue” or “give victory” (the same verb as here) but to leave vengeance to the LORD.
25. to utter “Sanctified,” / and after the vows to reflect. Although the general sense of the verse seems to be that one should not really pronounce vows of sacrifices for the Temple, the Hebrew wording and, in particular, the verb represented here as “utter” are obscure.
26. the wheel. The probable reference is to the wheels of a chariot with which a triumphant king would crush the defeated enemy.
27. laying bare. The Hebrew verb ḥofes seems to say “searching out,” which would work for God but not for a lamp, but it should be either read as ḥosef (a simple transposition of consonants) or understood to have the sense of ḥosef, such reversals of consonants with a retention of the meaning being not infrequent in biblical verbal stems.
all the inward chambers. Literally, “all the belly’s chambers.”
28. Let a king keep. The translation assumes a singular, yitsor, for the plural yitsru in the received text. This assumption is encouraged by the Masoretic linking of the verb with a hyphen to melekh, “king,” suggesting that this singular noun is the grammatical subject of the verb.
30. fearsome bruises. The Hebrew joins two synonyms in the construct state (“bruises of wound”), which as elsewhere is an intensifier.
scour away. There is some margin of doubt about the meaning of this term, especially since the consonantal text shows it as a verb, tamriq (which ordinarily does not appear in this particular conjugation), whereas the Masoretic marginal note corrects it to tamruq (“unguent”?). The most likely meaning, if one considers the repeated affirmation of corporal punishment in Proverbs, is that the only appropriate way of dealing with an evil person is to beat the living daylights out of him.
the belly’s chambers. This is the same Hebrew phrase that is used at the end of verse 27.
CHAPTER 21
1Water-streams, a king’s heart in the hand of the LORD,
wherever He desires, He diverts it.
2A man’s whole way is right in his eyes,
but the LORD takes the measure of hearts.
3Doing righteousness and justice
is choicer to the LORD than a sacrifice.
4Haughty eyes and overweening heart—
the furrow of the wicked is offense.
5The plans of the diligent—only for gain,
and all who hasten—only for loss.
6Attaining treasures with a lying tongue
is vanished breath and snares of death.
7The plunder of the wicked drags them down,
for they refuse to do justice.
8Perverse is the way of a stranger-man,
but a pure one, his deeds are straight.
9Better to dwell in the corner of a roof,
than with a quarrelsome wife in a spacious house.
10The wicked longs for evil with all his being,
his fellow man gets no pity from him.
11When the scoffer is punished, the dupe gets wisdom,
but when a wise man is taught, he gains knowledge.
12The righteous fathoms the hearts of the wicked,
subverts the wicked for evil.
13Who stops up his ear to the cry of the poor,
he, too, will call unanswered.
14A gift in secret allays anger,
and a stealthy bribe, fierce wrath.
15A joy to the righteous, the doing of justice,
but disaster to wrongdoers.
16A man who strays from insight’s way
will repose in the assembly of shades.
17The lover of revels is a man in want,
who loves wine and oil will not grow rich.
18A ransom for the righteous, the wicked man,
and in place of the upright, the traitor.
19Better to dwell in a desert-land
than with a quarrelsome angry wife.
20Rare treasure and oil in the wise man’s abode,
but a foolish man swallows them up.
21Who pursues righteousness and kindness
will find life, righteousness, and honor.
22The wise man goes up against a town of warriors
and takes down its mighty stronghold.
23Who guards his mouth and his tongue
guards his life from trouble.
24The arrogant brazen—scoffer his name,
he acts in arrogant anger.
25The sluggard’s desire will kill him,
for his hands refuse to act.
26All day long he aches with desire,
but the righteous gives unstinting.
27The sacrifice of the wicked is loathsome,
even more, as he brings it depraved.
28A lying witness will perish,
but a man who listens to counsel will speak.
29A wicked man is brazen-faced,
but the upright understands his own way.
30There is no wisdom and no discernment
and no counsel before the LORD.
31A horse is readied for the day of battle,
CHAPTER 21 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. Water-streams, a king’s heart. This proverb appears to play on the idea expressed elsewhere (20:5) that there are deep waters in a man’s heart. The proverb is also cast in riddling form: What could it mean that a king’s heart is streams of water in God’s hand (or power)? That God, like an engineer, can divert the channels into whatever course He chooses.
4. the furrow of the wicked is offense. All their endeavors to reap are an offense.
5. the diligent … / all who hasten. The contrast is between the person who carefully plans his projects and carries them out assiduously and those who do things precipitously, without deliberation. Again, the consequences are purely pragmatic: the diligent reaps a profit; the rash end up penniless.
6. and snares of death. The Masoretic Text reads mevaqshey mawet, “seekers of death,” a problematic reading because the phrase does not accord well with “vanished breath” and the plural creates a syntactic incoherence. The translation follows a reading shown in some variant manuscripts, the Septuagint, and the Vulgate: umoqshey mawet, “and snares of death.”
8. a stranger-man. The Hebrew, literally “man and stranger,” looks suspect. Some emend ʾish wazar to ʾish kazav, “a lying man,” which reads smoothly, though it has no textual warrant.
9. Better to dwell in the corner of a roof. The “better than” proverb form here is also a kind of riddle: What could possibly be worse than to have to perch (or live) in the corner of a roof? To live with a quarrelsome wife.
a spacious house. The Hebrew beyt ḥaver would be literally “house of a friend”—perhaps a welcoming house. But a reversal of the order of consonants yields bayit raḥav, “a spacious house.”
11. dupe … / wise man. When the fool sees that the troublemaker has come to grief, he wises up, whereas the wise man needs only instruction to get wisdom.
12. the hearts of the wicked. The translation follows the Septuagint, which shows libot, “the hearts of,” instead of the Masoretic leveyt, “to the house of.”
14. a stealthy bribe. Literally, “a bribe in the bosom”—that is, a bribe that is slipped furtively into the bosom of the bribe taker.
16. strays from insight’s way / will repose in the assembly of shades. A miniature narrative unfolds between the two versets: a person strays from the straight way of wisdom and then finds himself in the realm of the netherworld.
17. wine and oil. In the good life of the ancient Mediterranean, rubbing the body and head with fine olive oil was a valued luxury, hence its bracketing here with wine as a metonymy for hedonism.
18. A ransom for the righteous … / in place of the upright. The idea is that whatever disasters might have overtaken the good person will fall instead on the wicked.
19. Better to dwell in a desert-land. This proverb is thematically and structurally parallel to verse 9, with the desert replacing the roof corner as a miserable place to live that is preferable to life with a quarrelsome wife.
20. Rare. Literally, “desired.”
26. he aches with desire. Literally, “he desires a desire.” The “he” would simply refer to the person who is slave to his own desires. The Septuagint reads “the dolt desires.”
27. depraved. Literally, “in depravity.” Fox argues for the sense of “with a scheme.”
28. a man who listens to counsel will speak. The Masoretic Text reads “a man who listens will forever [lanetsah]̣ speak,” which scarcely seems the outcome one would want from an attentive person (presumably, attentive in a court of justice). The translation adopts the emendation of leʿetsah, “to counsel.”
31. but victory is the LORD’s. This verset springs a kind of revelatory surprise on the audience of the proverb. After the image of the horse readied for battle, either saddled for its rider or hitched to its chariot, we discover in two Hebrew words, two beats, against the four words and four beats of the first verset, that the outcome of the battle is determined by God alone.
CHAPTER 22
1A name is choicer than great wealth—
than silver and gold, good favor.
2The rich and the poor come together,
the LORD is maker of both.
3The shrewd man sees harm and hides,
but dupes pass on and are punished.
4What follows humility is fear of the LORD,
wealth and honor and life.
5Thorns and pitfalls in the way of the crooked,
who guards his life keeps far from them.
6Train up a lad in the way he should go,
when he grows old he will still not swerve from it.
7The rich rules over the poor,
and the borrower is slave to the man who lends.
8Who sows wrongdoing will reap injustice,
and the rod of his wrath will fail.
9The generous one, he shall be blessed,
for he gave of his bread to the wretched.
10Banish the scoffer and strife will depart,
dispute and demeaning will cease.
11Who loves heart’s purity,
speaks graciously—the king is his friend.
12The LORD’s eyes watch over knowledge,
and He confounds the traitor’s words.
13The sluggard said, “A lion’s outside
in the square. I shall be murdered!”
14A deep pit is the mouth of stranger-women.
The cursed of the LORD will fall into it.
15When folly is bound to the heart of a lad,
the rod of rebuke will remove it from him.
16One oppresses the wretched but makes him increase,
one gives to the wealthy but he comes to want.
17Bend your ear and hear the words of the wise,
and set your heart on my knowledge.
18For it is sweet that you keep them in your belly,
that they all be fit on your lips.
19For your trust to be in the LORD,
I have informed you today, even you.
20Have I not written for you thirty things
in good counsel and knowledge?—
21to inform you the utmost true sayings,
to respond to those who send you.
22Do not rob the wretched, for wretched is he,
and do not crush the poor in the gate.
23For the LORD will argue their case,
and deprive those who deprived them of life.
24Consort not with an irascible man,
and do not join a hotheaded person,
25lest you learn his ways
and take on a snare for your life.
26Do not be of those who give their hand in pledge,
who back up extortionate loans.
27If you have nothing with which to pay,
why should your bedding be taken from under you?
28Do not shift the age-old boundary stone
that your forefathers set up.
29Have you seen a man who is quick at his task?
Before kings he shall stand.
He shall not stand before the lowly.
CHAPTER 22 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
2. come together. More literally, “meet.” Although exegetical energy has been lavished on the question of what it means for the rich and the poor to come together, the obvious sense, dictated by the second clause of this line, is that whatever social and economic differences separate the rich and the poor, in the end they are both God’s creatures and equal before Him.
3. pass on and are punished. Evidently, the unreflective dupe passes on in the direction of harm, or moves right through it, not realizing the damage it is inflicting on him. “Punished” in this context suggests something like “come to grief.”
6. in the way he should go. While the literal sense is “according to his way,” there is no reason to swerve from the formulation of the King James Version, which catches the intended meaning and has become proverbial.
8. the rod of his wrath will fail. The assumption is that the wrongdoer is hurtfully aggressive toward others (“rod,” shevet, is the same instrument wielded instructionally against sons, though in that case it is a “rod of reproof “). In the end, when he gets his comeuppance, his power to harm others will fail.
9. The generous one. Literally, “good of eye.”
11. speaks graciously. The literal sense of the Hebrew, which has no verb, is “graciousness of his lips.”
13. I shall be murdered. The inappropriate verb (instead of “eaten up” or “killed”) is probably deliberate. The lazy man, giving free rein to his fantasy in order to find excuses for not leaving his house, imagines that the lion prowling the streets will viciously “murder” him, as though it were a malicious assassin.
14. A deep pit is the mouth of stranger-women. As elsewhere, the stranger-woman is somebody else’s (seductive) wife. Her mouth is a dangerous pit because she uses it to speak the sweet talk of seduction (for a vivid example, see chapter 7). It is also prelude and analogue to the lower “pit” in which she seeks to draw the gullible young man.
15. When folly is bound to the heart of a lad. In the rather brutal pedagogy of Proverbs, if your child shows foolish inclinations, you need to beat them out of him.
16. One oppresses … / one gives. This is another proverb that is not a didactic maxim but rather an observation about the sometimes paradoxical nature of human reality: in some cases, a person may seek to take advantage of a poor man and yet the poor man thrives; in some cases, a person may give to someone who already has plenty and somehow the rich man ends up in want.
17. Bend your ear and hear the words of the wise. Here begins a formal exordium, running to verse 21, that marks the inception of a new collection of proverbs that comprises two subunits, 22:22–23:11 and 23:12–24:22. The first of these sub-units, as most scholars for nearly a century have agreed, is an adaptation of an Egyptian Wisdom text, the Instruction of Amenemope, and thus bears witness to the international circulation of Wisdom literature. Fifteen of its twenty-four verses have notable parallels in Amenemope, and some of the sequencing of the proverbs is the same. In all likelihood, the Egyptian text was first translated into Aramaic, perhaps in the seventh century B.C.E., by which time Aramaic had become a diplomatic lingua franca in the Near East. Elite circles in Israel at this point certainly knew Aramaic, and so an adaptation from the Aramaic to Hebrew would have been perfectly likely. It is notable that the Hebrew of this section incorporates a number of Aramaic usages.
20. thirty things. The Masoretic Text has shalishim (“captains”?) in the ketiv (consonantal text) and shelishim (“threes”?) in the qeri (marginal gloss). Neither makes sense, and the translation adopts Michael V. Fox’s persuasive emendation to sheloshim. Amenemope has thirty maxims, and there are thirty maxims in this subunit, if one counts the exordium as the first maxim.
21. the utmost true sayings. The Hebrew strings together synonyms, qosht (a borrowing from Aramaic, meaning “truth”), ʾimrey ʾemet (“sayings of truth”), with an effect of emphasis or intensification.
22. do not crush the poor in the gate. The gate was where courts of justice were held, and the sense of subverting the legal rights of the poor is spelled out in the first verset of the next line.
24. a hotheaded person. The Hebrew ʾish-ḥeimot is unusual as an idiom but, Fox informs us, is a direct translation of the Egyptian phrase.
27. why should your bedding be taken from under you. As the law in Exodus 22:25–26 makes clear, the poor man’s bedding was the cloak in which he wrapped himself for sleep—hence one is forbidden to take it away from him at night in pawn for a debt. A letter on behalf of a laborer, found at Yavneh Yam, and dating from the seventh century B.C.E., complains about the deprivation of the cloak for debt. The Hebrew seems to say “why should he take your bedding,” but the third-person masculine singular is often used as the equivalent of a passive and thus is translated here as a passive.
28. Do not shift the age-old boundary stone. This injunction, which has a close parallel in the Egyptian source-text, reflects the general view that real property should be inalienable.
29. quick at his task. The Hebrew adjective mahir suggests, as in a number of other occurrences, “adept” or “skilled.”
the lowly. A more literal rendering of the Hebrew ḥashukhim would be “the obscure,” but the sense is not that they lack fame but rather that, unlike kings, they have no social standing.
CHAPTER 23
1When you sit to break bread with a ruler,
understand well what is before you,
2and put a knife to your gullet,
if you are a gluttonous man.
3Do not crave his delicacies,
4Do not strain to become rich,
through your understanding, leave off.
5Let your eyes but fly over it, it is gone,
for it will surely sprout wings,
like an eagle fly off to the heavens.
6Do not break bread with a stingy man,
nor crave his delicacies.
7For like one who gauges in his mind, so he is.
“Eat and drink,” he will say to you,
but his heart is not with you.
8Your crust that you eat you will vomit,
and you will ruin your pleasant words.
9In a fool’s ears do not speak,
for he will despise the insight of your words.
10Do not shift the age-old boundary stone,
nor enter the fields of orphans.
11For their redeemer is strong,
he will argue their case against you.
12Bring your heart to reproof,
and your ear to sayings of truth.
13Do not hold back reproof from a lad,
when you strike him with the rod, he won’t die.
14You, with the rod you should strike him
15My son, if your heart gets wisdom,
my heart, too, will rejoice,
16and my inward parts will exult
when your lips speak uprightness.
17Let your heart not envy offenders,
but in fear of the LORD all day long.
18For if you keep it, there is a future,
and your hope will not be cut off.
19Listen, my son, and get wisdom,
and make your heart go straight on the way.
20Do not be with the guzzlers of wine,
with those who gorge on meat.
21For the guzzler and gorger will lose all,
and slumber will clothe him in rags.
22Listen to your father who begot you,
nor despise your mother when she grows old.
23Get truth and do not sell it,
wisdom, reproof, and discernment.
24The righteous man’s father will surely be gladdened,
the wise man’s begetter rejoices in him.
25Your father and mother rejoice,
and she who bore you will be gladdened.
26Pay mind, my son, to me,
and let your eyes keep my ways.
27For a whore is a deep ditch,
and a narrow well, the stranger-woman.
28Why, like a kidnapper she lies in wait,
and sweeps up the traitors among men.
29For whom “alack,” for whom “alas,”
for whom strife, for whom complaint?
For whom needless wounds,
30For those who linger over wine,
who come to try mixed drink.
31Do not regard wine in its redness,
when it shows its hue in the cup,
32In the end it bites like a snake,
and like a viper spews its poison.
33Your eyes will see strange things,
and your heart will speak perverseness,
34and you will be like one who beds in the sea,
who beds on the top of the rigging.
35“They struck me—I felt no hurt;
they beat me—I was unaware.
I will look for it again.”
CHAPTER 23 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
2. put a knife to your gullet. This admonition not to gorge oneself when dining with the powerful has numerous parallels in Egyptian Wisdom literature.
3. they are bread of lies. The powerful man may seem to be showering you with hospitality in laying out a grand spread before you, but he has his own calculations, and a guest who eats too eagerly may come to regret it.
4. through your understanding, leave off. Though the Hebrew is a bit cryptic, this may be the most plausible construction: use your good sense not to strive excessively for wealth. Fox understands this as “Leave off your staring,” but construing the noun binah as “staring” is somewhat strained, even though the cognate verb sometimes means “to consider” or “to regard.”
5. over it. The antecedent is an implied noun, “wealth.”
7. but his heart is not with you. The stingy host, like the ruler, may make a gesture of hospitality, but what he has in mind is anything but generosity. The vivid image of vomiting in the verse that follows may suggest that he will offer his guest questionable food—say, three-day-old fish that has begun to go bad—which he has bought at a very cheap price.
11. For their redeemer is strong. Many understand this as a reference to God, Who protects the helpless orphans in their plight. “Redeemer,” goʾel, is a judicial term (this is how it is used in Job and in Ruth), and so it could refer here to a human redeemer, some hitherto unknown kinsman who will come forth and battle for the rights of the orphan.
12. Bring your heart to reproof. This very general admonition signals the beginning of another collection of sayings, but not from Amenemope. As Fox points out, sundry other Egyptian sources are tapped.
14. save his life from Sheol. The insistence here and elsewhere on vigorous corporal punishment is linked to the fear of the dire consequences for failing to discipline a young person. Because he will either become involved in dangerous activities or be punished by God, his swerving from the right path can lead to his death.
16. inward parts. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “kidneys” (hence the King James Version’s “reins”), thought to be the seat of conscience.
17. but in fear of the LORD all day long. The Hebrew seems to imply an elided verb such as “dwell.” Some scholars emend this phrase to “fearers of the LORD,” but envy seems the wrong attitude toward such people.
18. if you keep it. The Hebrew lacks a verb, and the translation follows the Septuagint, which has a verb to this effect, evidently based on a Hebrew text that showed tishemrena. The antecedent of “it,” a feminine suffix in the Hebrew, would be “fear of the LORD” in the previous line.
19. make your heart go straight on the way. The verb ʾasher means literally “make strides,” though, as Fox suggests, it probably puns both on yashar, “straight,” and on its other sense, to declare someone fortunate.
21. slumber will clothe him in rags. The Hebrew does not specify an object for the verb, but, contrary to many interpreters, it would have to be the glutton and drunkard, now seen lying in a sated stupor and thus neglecting his possessions, which he comes to lose.
26. keep. The translation adopts the correction of the marginal qeri. The text proper, reversing the consonants of the verb, erroneously reads “be pleased with.”
27. whore … / stranger-woman. These are complementary possibilities of dangerous liaisons, the prostitute and the adulteress. Each is a trap into which a foolish man can tumble, with the sexual sense of “ditch” and “well” manifest. Chapter 5 offers a contrasting image of conjugal sexuality as a pure well.
28. a kidnapper. The Hebrew ḥetef is odd but derives from a verbal stem that means “to snatch.”
sweeps up. The verb tosif, elsewhere meaning “to increase,” here seems to derive, as many commentators have concluded, from ʾasaf, “to take away” or “gather up.”
traitors. At least here, the double standard for sexual behavior is not applied: the married men who frequent promiscuous women are traitors to their own wives, and their involvement with the adulterers will lead them to a bad end.
29. For whom. This interrogative phrase, which could equally be rendered as “who has?,” begins an extended riddle form: only at the end of the second line here, with the reference to bloodshot eyes, is there an explicit hint that the object of all these mishaps is the drunkard, whose identity is then spelled out in the next verse.
31. in its redness. Literally, “as it shows red.”
going down smoothly. The phrase yithalekh bemeysharim is elucidated by its use in Song of Songs 7:10 in reference to the beloved’s palate, which is “like goodly wine.” Amusingly, the language of this verse in Proverbs, intended as a warning against wine, is repeatedly used in the Hebrew drinking poems of medieval Andalusia as a celebration of the glories of wine.
33. Your eyes will see strange things. The hallucinations and mental confusion of drunkenness are the snakebite of the drink.
34. like one who beds in the sea, / who beds on the top of the rigging. The simile provides a striking satiric image of the wobbliness of the drunkard. In a characteristic move of intensification from the first verset to the second, the drunken person is not merely like someone trying to sleep in the surging sea but like someone lying up in the rigging as the ship pitches about.
35. They struck me—I felt no hurt. The drinker is too stupefied by alcohol to realize that he has been beaten. These words loop back to the riddle question, “For whom needless wounds?”
When will I awake? / I will look for it again. At the end of this satiric vignette, the alcoholic remains true to his addiction: still in a half-stupor as he pronounces these words, he is in no condition to go out and get more wine, but as soon as his mind clears a bit, that is just what he means to do.
CHAPTER 24
1Do not envy evil men,
and do not desire to be with them.
2For their heart ponders plunder,
and their lips speak trouble.
3Through wisdom a house is built,
and through discernment it is firm-founded.
4And through knowledge rooms are filled
with all precious and pleasant wealth.
5A wise man is mightier than a strong one,
and a man of knowledge than one of great power.
6For through designs you should make war,
and victory comes from abundant counsel.
7Wisdom is too high for the dolt,
he won’t open his mouth in the gate.
8Who plots to do evil,
they will call him a master of cunning.
9The foulness of foolishness is an offense,
the scoffer is loathed by people.
10Should you be slack on the day of distress,
your strength will be constrained.
11Save those who are taken to death,
and from those stumbling to slaughter do not hold back.
12Should you say, “Why, we did not know of this.”
Will not the Weigher of Hearts discern,
and the Watcher of your life not know,
and pay back a man by his deeds?
13Eat honey, my son, for it is good,
and honeycomb, sweet on your palate.
14Thus know wisdom for yourself,
if you find it, there is a future,
and your hope will not be cut off.
15Do not enter the home of the righteous
nor plunder the place where he beds his flock.
16For seven times a righteous man falls and gets up but the wicked stumble in evil.
17When your enemy falls, do not rejoice,
and when he stumbles, let your heart be not gladdened,
18lest the LORD see and it be evil in His eyes,
and He deflect His wrath from him.
19Do not be provoked by evildoers,
do not envy the wicked.
20For there is no future for the evil man,
the lamp of the wicked will gutter.
21Fear the LORD, my son, and the king,
neither one nor the other vex.
22For ruin from them rises suddenly;
Who can know the disaster wreaked by both?
23These, too, are from the wise:
showing favor in justice cannot be good.
24Who says to the guilty, “You are innocent,”
peoples will curse him,
nations will damn him.
25But for the rebukers it will be pleasant,
upon them the blessing of good will come.
26With lips does he kiss
who answers in forthright words.
27Prepare your task outside
and ready it for yourself in the field.
After, you will build your house.
28Do not be a witness for no cause against your neighbor,
that you should seduce with your lips.
29Do not say, “As he did to me I will do to him,
I will pay back the man by his deeds.”
30I passed by the field of the lazy man
and by the vineyard of one without sense,
31and, look, it had all sprouted thorns,
its surface was covered with thistles,
and its stone wall was in ruins.
32And I beheld and I paid mind,
33a bit more sleep, a bit more slumber,
a bit more lying with folded arms,
34and your privation will come like a wayfarer,
your want like a shield-bearing man.
CHAPTER 24 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
4. with all precious and pleasant wealth. In this verset the poet diverges from the prevalent pattern of neat semantic parallelism between the two halves of the line, which is emphatically evident in the three preceding lines, to stipulate, in a little surprise, with what the rooms of the house are filled.
5. mightier than the strong one, / … than one of great power. The Masoretic Text reads gever ḥakham baʿoz, “a wise man in [the?] strength,” and meʾamets-koah,̣ “summons up power.” The second phrase is intelligible though a poor parallelism; the first phrase is not intelligible. The translation follows the Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Targum, all of which seem to have read gavar ḥakham meiʿaz and meiʾamits-koah,̣ readings that yield the translation offered here.
7. he won’t open his mouth in the gate. As elsewhere, the gate is where judicial discussions were conducted. The dolt, lacking all wisdom, will have no idea what to say in such deliberations.
9. loathed by people. More literally, “people’s loathing.”
11. slaughter. Or “a killing.”
12. we did not know of this. These words refer back to the previous line: when people are about to be slaughtered, don’t pretend that you had no notion of what was happening.
the Watcher of your life not know. The “not” is unstated in the Hebrew but carried over from the previous clause.
13. Eat honey, my son. Though the urging to eat something that tastes sweet may sound momentarily superfluous, the equation between honey and wisdom was a familiar one, and it is promptly spelled out in the next verse, which is clearly bracketed with this one.
15. Do not enter the home of the righteous. The Masoretic Text reads, “Do not lie in wait, wicked man, for the home of the righteous,” ʾal teʾerov rashaʿ leneweh tsadiq. This is odd because “lie in wait” is something done to a person, not to a place, and because vocatives addressed to the wicked are not part of the rhetorical strategy of Proverbs. This translation adapts an emendation proposed by Fox, based in part on the Septuagint: tavoʾ, “enter,” for teʾerov, “lie in wait,” and the deletion of rashaʿ, “wicked man,” as a probable gloss.
21. neither one nor the other vex. The Masoretic Text reads, “And don’t mix in [titʿarav] with shonim.” The meaning of shonim is in doubt. Some think it means “dissidents”; the King James Version guesses, desperately, “them that are given to change.” There is no evidence that this verbal root, which can mean “to repeat” or “to be different,” had either of these senses in the Bible. The translation follows the Septuagint, which reads sheneyhem, “the two of them,” for shonim, and titʿabar (or perhaps teʿaber), a root having to do with anger, instead of titʿarav, “mix in.” This two-line proverb, then, follows a recurring theme of the book in warning against provoking those in power, who can have a short fuse and a heavy hand.
23. These, too, are from the wise. This is the brief formal introduction of a new selection of proverbs from a different source.
showing favor in justice. This second verset in fact begins the sequence on impartiality in justice that takes up the next two versets.
26. kiss / … forthright words. The line flaunts a paradox: he who speaks straightforwardly—probably words of justified criticism—is as one who kisses, however harsh the words.
27. Prepare your task outside. This is another piece of purely pragmatic wisdom: first, a person must shore up his substance by working in the field, and then he will be in a position to build a house. This proverb is a pointed antithesis to the satiric portrait at the end of the chapter of the lazy man letting his possessions sink into ruin.
30. I passed by the field of the lazy man. The miniature first-person narrative that begins here is relatively rare in this part of the book, where hortatory second-person address predominates.
32. I took reproof. In this context, the recurring idiom has the sense of “I learned a lesson.”
33–34. These two lines duplicate 6:10–11. See the comments there for an elucidation of the language.
CHAPTER 25
1These, too, are proverbs of Solomon, which
the men of Hezekiah king of Judah transcribed.
2God’s honor is to hide a matter,
the honor of kings, to probe a matter.
3The heavens for height and the earth for depth,
but the heart of kings is beyond probing.
4Remove the dross from silver,
and for the refiner the vessel comes out.
5Remove the wicked man from the king’s presence,
and his throne is firm-founded in justice.
6Do not preen before a king,
and do not stand in the place of the great.
7For better that he say to you, “Come up here,”
than that he abase you before a noble
8Do not go out quickly to a quarrel,
for what will you do afterward
when your neighbor puts you to shame?
9Take up your quarrel with your neighbor,
but another’s secret do not reveal,
10lest he who hears revile you,
and your infamy not be withdrawn.
11Golden apples in silver carvings,
a word spoken in its own right way.
12A ring of gold and a fine-gold bangle—
the wise rebuker to an ear that heeds.
13Like the chill of snow on a harvest day,
a faithful messenger to his senders,
he revives his master’s spirits.
14Clouds and wind yet there is no rain—
a man who boasts of a deceptive gift.
15Through patience a leader is duped,
and a gentle tongue breaks a bone.
16If you find honey, eat just what you need,
lest you have your fill of it and throw it up.
17Be sparing of your visits in your neighbor’s house,
lest he have his fill of you and hate you.
18A mace and a sword and a sharpened arrow—
a man who bears false witness against his neighbor.
19A shattered tooth and a shaky leg—
treacherous refuge on a day of trouble.
20Who takes off a garment on a cold day,
thus the singer of songs to a downcast heart.
21If your foe is hungry, feed him bread,
and if he thirsts, give him water,
22for you would heap live coals on his head,
and the LORD will pay you back.
23A north wind brings on rain,
and an angry face—a secretive tongue.
24Better to dwell in the corner of a roof
than with a quarrelsome wife in a spacious house.
25Cool water to a famished throat—
good news from a distant land.
26A muddied fountain, a fouled-up spring—
a righteous man toppling before the wicked.
27To eat too much honey is not good,
and to be sparing of speech is honor.
28A breached city without a wall—
a man with no restraint to his spirit.
CHAPTER 25 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah transcribed. The historical claim is perfectly plausible. Hezekiah reigned during the last three decades of the eighth century B.C.E., and court scribes in this period might well have collated and redacted a small collection of proverbs. The use of “too,” gam, clearly suggests that there was at least one earlier collection, the most likely candidate being the one that begins in chapter 10.
2. God’s honor is to hide a matter. God’s purposes in history, nature, and individual lives are beyond human ken, and their hidden character enhances our sense of divine power.
the honor of kings, to probe a matter. The king, as supreme judicial and executive authority, is obliged to sift out facts for the purposes of justice and policy. The emphasis on kings and on the comportment before nobility in all likelihood reflects the concerns of the court scribes responsible for this collection of proverbs. It continues through verse 7.
3. The heavens for height and the earth for depth. This line initiates the puzzle pattern that is especially prominent in this particular collection: a potentially enigmatic image in the first verset followed by its human referent or antithesis in the second verset.
4. Remove the dross from silver. In this instance, the puzzle image takes up a whole line of poetry, and the explanation of its relevance to the affairs of men is unfolded in a second line (verse 5).
7. whom your eyes have seen. This clause sounds lame and may well be a mistaken scribal addition.
11. Golden apples in silver carvings. This image of exquisite jewelry for apt speech reflects the high value placed in Proverbs on eloquent and beautifully framed speech.
12. A ring of gold and a fine-gold bangle. Here the enigmatic nature of the riddle image in the first verset is flaunted: it is rather a surprise that something as harsh and immaterial as rebuke should turn out to be the referent of these images of fine jewelry. The ring, nezem, would be worn on either the ear or the nose, and the former placement fits nicely with the listening ear.
13. Like the chill of snow on a harvest day. Of course, snow would never fall on a harvest day in the land of Israel. The early harvest in late May is an especially hot period, but even during the late harvest at the beginning of October, it is relatively warm.
14. Clouds and wind. The combination of clouds and wind suggests that a heavy storm is brewing. The lack of rain then sets up the enigma of the riddle, to be solved in the second verset.
15. Through patience a leader is duped. If you take your time and calculate carefully, you can find a way to make a ruler serve your purposes. The verb could also be rendered as “beguiled,” but the violence of the second verset argues for the more negative sense.
a gentle tongue breaks a bone. This is a very vivid instance of the tendency to intensification in the second half of the line. Duping a ruler through patient strategy in the first verset is a plausibly realistic event; the second verset then deploys a strong hyperbole—gentle speech as an agency of terrific destruction, which is also an anatomical image, the soft tongue that paradoxically can break a bone.
17. Be sparing of your visits. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “make your foot rare.”
18. A mace and a sword and a sharpened arrow. In this instance the riddling nature of the initial verset is compounded by this stringing together of three different weapons. For the first term, the received text shows meifits (“scatter”), but this is almost certainly a mistake for mapats, “mace” or “club,” as the evidence of the Septuagint indicates.
19. shaky. The translation reads moʿedet, “stumbling” or “shaky,” for the Masoretic muʿedet, “designated” or “warned against,” the difference being only the vocalization.
20. vinegar on natron. The effect of vinegar on natron (sodium carbonate) is to produce an acrid sizzle.
22. the LORD will pay you back. Some understand this to mean that the LORD will reward you—reward for showing humanity to your enemy. But the verb also means to requite or punish, and that sense is a better match with the idea of heaping coals on the foe’s head in the first verset: if you are inhumane to your enemy, the LORD will requite it of you.
23. an angry face—a secretive tongue. Showing anger drives people to guard their words and not say what they mean.
24. Better to dwell in the corner of a roof. This verse duplicates 21:9. See the comments there.
27. to be sparing of speech is honor. The Masoretic Text here makes little sense: weḥeqer kevodam kavod, “and the probing of their honor is honor.” This translation follows the emendation formulated by Fox, wehoqer daber mekhubad.
28. A breached city without a wall. This riddle image would have communicated a condition of terribly exposed vulnerability to the ancient audience, which was very familiar with fortified walls as an important means of protecting cities from invaders. In the second verset, then, the man of unrestrained spirit is seen as making himself painfully vulnerable to humiliation or harm.
CHAPTER 26
1Like snow in the summer, like rain in the harvest,
so honor is unfit for a fool.
2As a bird for wandering, as a swallow for flight,
so a groundless curse won’t come to pass.
3A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey,
and a rod for the back of fools.
4Do not answer a dolt by his folly
lest you, too, be like him.
5Answer the dolt by his folly,
lest he seem wise in his own eyes.
6He cuts off his own legs, drinking outrage,
he who send words by a fool.
7Thighs hang slack on the lame
and a proverb in the mouth of fools.
8Like one binding a stone in a sling,
so he who gives a fool honor.
9A thorn comes up in the hand of a drunk
and a proverb in the mouth of fools.
10A master brings all things about,
but who hires a fool hires vagabonds.
11Like a dog going back to his vomit
a dolt repeats his folly.
12Have you seen a man wise in his own eyes?
There is more hope for the fool than for him.
13The sluggard says, “A young lion is on the road,
a lion is out in the squares.”
14A door turns on its hinge,
and a sluggard on his bed.
15The sluggard buries his hand in the dish,
he cannot bring it back up to his mouth.
16The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes
than seven who answer with good sense.
17Like one who seizes the ears of a passing dog
is he who mixes in with a quarrel not his.
18Like a lunatic shooting deadly firebrands
19is a man who deceives his neighbor
and says, “Why, I was joking.”
20When there is no wood, a fire goes out,
and without a grumbler, strife falls silent.
21Coal for embers and wood for fire
and a belligerent man to stir up quarrel.
22A grumbler’s words are like pounding
and they go down to the belly’s chambers.
23Silver with dross glazed on pottery
are ardent lips and an evil heart.
24By his lips a foe dissembles
and within he lays out deceit.
25Though he makes his speech fair, do not trust him,
for seven loathsome things are in his heart.
26Who covers hatred in deception,
his evil will be exposed to all.
27Who digs a pit will fall in it,
and who rolls a stone, it will come back on him.
28A lying tongue hates those it crushes,
and a smooth mouth pushes one down.
CHAPTER 26 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. Like snow in the summer. This is part of a whole series here of riddle-form one-line proverbs. These are cast either as a paradoxical or a puzzling image in the first verset—in this instance: what could possibly be as anomalous as snow in a warm season?—or as an image so self-evident that the listener wonders why it should be mentioned (for example, verses 3, 7, 14, 20).
2. a bird … a swallow. Just as these winged creatures by their nature fly away, a groundless curse will not “come down on” its intended object but will dissipate, fly away.
4–5. Do not answer a dolt … / Answer the dolt. Ingenious exegetical effort has been exercised to set these two contradictory proverbs in a dialectic or complementary relationship with each other. It is more plausible to assume that they were bracketed together editorially because of the similarity of formulation while they reflect two quite different and originally independent perspectives. The first proverb counsels us to avoid contention with a fool because we are liable to get entangled in his own misguided or confused terms (“by [or according to] his folly”). The second proverb urges us to answer the fool so that he is compelled to recognize what a fool he is. In this English version, kesil, generally rendered as “fool,” has been translated as “dolt” because the word for “folly” here, iwelet, is an entirely different term.
6. He cuts off his own legs, drinking outrage. In this proverb, the riddle image is especially violent: like a man who terribly mutilates himself is he who entrusts a message to a fool.
8. binding. With the Septuagint, the translation reads tsorer, “binding” or “one who binds,” instead of the Masoretic tseror, “bundle.” The relation of image to referent is not entirely clear. Fox’s explanation is that giving a fool honor “arms” him to do harm to others, like the loading of a slingshot with a stone.
9. A thorn comes up in the hand of a drunk. Presumably, he is staggering about in his drunken stupor and thus thrusts his hand unawares against thorns.
a proverb in the mouth of fools. This means that either they will pronounce a warped proverb that may hurt others or, lacking the wisdom to pronounce wise sayings, in their effort to do so they will shame or do harm to themselves. The latter option may be more likely.
10. A master brings all things about, / but who hires a fool hires vagabonds. The Hebrew of the received text is obscure, but the sundry attempts to emend it involve major surgical operations on the text with no more than scant support in the ancient versions. This translation follows the general outline of the construction proposed in the New Jewish Publication Society translation.
11. Like a dog going back to his vomit. This is another case of a violent, and arresting, riddle image in the first half of the line.
13. The sluggard says. This proverb is a virtual doublet of 22:13—see the comment there. The Hebrew uses two synonyms for “lion,” and the translation resorts to a familiar fallback by rendering the first term, shaḥal, as “young lion.”
14. A door turns on its hinge. This is a particularly witty deployment of a seemingly obvious image for the riddling part of the line. A door, of course, turns on its hinge; but then we are invited to link that to the sluggard, turning from one side to the other in bed and going nowhere, like the door. We may also imagine the door opening and shutting, with people going in and out, while the sluggard remains in bed.
15. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. This proverb duplicates 19:24. See the comment there.
17. seizes the ears of a passing dog. The simile has a special edge because dogs were not domesticated in ancient Israel but rather wandered outside as semiferal scavengers. The vivid implication is that a person who mixes into someone else’s quarrel is liable to get badly bitten.
mixes in. The translation reads mitʿarev for the Masoretic mitʿaber (“becomes angry”).
18. lunatic. There is some question about the precise meaning of the Hebrew term.
deadly firebrands. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “sparks, arrows, and death.” “Arrows and death” may be a hendiadys for “deadly arrows.”
22. A grumbler’s words. This is another doublet. See 18:8.
23. ardent lips. An emendation of the first consonant of the Hebrew word rendered as “ardent” (or “burning”) yields “smooth lips,” which is the reading of the Septuagint.
25. speech. Literally, “voice.”
26. to all. Literally, “in the assembly”—that is, in public.
28. A lying tongue hates those it crushes. The tongue is a synecdoche for the liar, but it accords with the potent agency assigned to speech in Proverbs that the tongue should be the subject of both verbs here. What the proverb seems to have in mind is a common psychological mechanism in which the victimizer comes to hate or despise the very person to whom he does wrong, perhaps feeling contempt because the victim has so pathetically exposed himself to harm. For a vivid sexual instance in the Bible, see the story of Amnon and Tamar in 2 Samuel 13.
a smooth mouth. The reference is obviously to smooth speech, but the agency of the body part, as with the tongue in the first verset, is important for the poetic effect.
CHAPTER 27
1Do not boast about tomorrow,
for you know not what the day will bring forth.
2Let a stranger praise you and not your own mouth,
another, and not your own lips.
3The weight of a stone and the heft of sand—
the dolt’s anger is heavier than both.
4The cruelty of fury and anger’s rush—
but who can stand up to envy?
5Better open reproof
than hidden love.
6The wounds from a friend are faithful
but the kisses of a foe are profuse.
7A sated appetite disdains honeycomb
but to a hungry appetite all bitter is sweet.
8Like a bird wandering from its nest
is a man wandering from his place.
9Oil and incense gladden the heart,
and a friend’s sweetness more than inward counsel.
10Do not forsake your friend or your father’s friend
nor enter your brother’s house on the day of your ruin.
than a distant brother.
11Get wisdom, my son, and gladden my heart,
that I may give back an answer to my insulter.
12The shrewd man saw evil and hid.
Dupes passed on and were punished.
13Take his garment, for he stood bond for another,
for an alien woman, take his pledge.
14Who greets his neighbor in a loud voice
first thing in the morning,
it is reckoned to him a curse.
15A maddening drip on a cloudy day
and a nagging wife are alike.
16Who conceals her conceals the wind,
and her name is called “right hand.”
17Iron together with iron,
and a man together with his friend.
18Who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit,
and who guards his master will be honored.
19Like water face to face
thus the heart of man to man.
20Sheol and Perdition are not sated,
and the eyes of man are not sated.
21Smelter for silver and kiln for gold,
and a man according to his praise.
22Though you grind down a dolt with a mortar,
in the pestle among the groats,
his folly will not swerve from him.
23You must surely know the look of your flock,
put your mind on the herds.
24For wealth is not forever
25The grass is gone, new grass appears,
the mountains’ grasses are gathered.
26There are sheep for your clothing,
he-goats, the price of a field.
27Enough goat’s milk for your food,
for the food of your house,
and viands for your young women.
CHAPTER 27 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
3. The weight of a stone and the heft of sand. After the two preceding proverbs, which are prudential exhortations, this verse reverts to the riddle form, as does the next verse.
6. The wounds from a friend are faithful. Both the content of the second verset and the larger context of Proverbs suggest that “wounds” here means something like “cutting words of rebuke” (in contrast to the hypocritical kisses of an enemy). They are “faithful” in the sense that they are meant to serve one’s best interest, and are an expression of loyal friendship.
profuse. This is what the Hebrew term means. The implication is that the kisses are excessive, and suspect.
9. a friend’s sweetness more than inward counsel. The Hebrew is somewhat cryptic, or perhaps merely elliptical. “Sweetness” might be an ellipsis for “sweet counsel.” The phrase rendered as “inward counsel,” or perhaps “one’s own counsel,” is ʿatsat nafesh, which could mean literally “the counsel of the essential self,” “the counsel of the spirit,” or simply “a person’s counsel.”
10. Do not forsake your friend. Fox understands the verb in context to mean “ignore,” although the evidence for that sense of ʿazav elsewhere is scant.
nor enter your brother’s house. The implication is that a true friend is a better resource in life than a brother.
Better a close neighbor / than a distant brother. Despite the verse breaks, this is obviously a separate proverb, bracketed editorially with the previous one because of the comparison of friend and brother.
12. The shrewd man. This proverb duplicates 22:3.
13. Take his garment. This is still another doublet—of 20:16—with minor changes.
14. Who greets his neighbor in a loud voice. This proverb is an amusing observation on social behavior: when you are barely awake in the morning, the last thing you want is a bellowed—and perhaps ostentatious—greeting from a neighbor.
15. A maddening drip. This proverb is a somewhat different formulation of 19:13.
16. Who conceals her conceals the wind, / and her name is called “right hand.” The Hebrew is unintelligible, as the translation indicates, and even with emendation it is hard to make sense of this verse. The “her” may refer to the nagging wife of the previous verse, in which case the idea is that it is impossible to hide her because she is everywhere. (The verb for the initial “conceals” is plural in the Hebrew but has been emended to a singular to accord with the second “conceals.”) The literal sense of the second verset in the received text is “and the oil of his right hand will call [or will be called],” weshemen yemino yiqraʾ. This has been emended, partly in accordance with the Septuagint, to read weshemah yamin yiqareiʾ. Even so, the meaning is unclear. Perhaps, by a stretch, it could mean, she is thought of as the right hand—that is, powerful—because there is no way to conceal or repress her. Amid all this confusion, Fox interestingly detects a pun: tsafan, “conceal,” suggests tsafon, “north”; and yamin, “right hand,” is an alternate term for “south.”
17. Iron together with iron. This is usually understood to refer to magnetized iron, which clings to iron, and so does a man to his friend. The force of the proverb is in its terrific compactness, which the translation tries to preserve.
19. Like water face to face. Again, the translation reproduces the strong compactness of the original. The reference is obviously to someone seeing his own reflection in water. But water is unstable and therefore an undependable or distorting mirror, unlike an actual mirror of polished bronze (there were no glass mirrors in this era). Thus one man’s heart provides a tricky or deceptive image of what is in the heart of another.
21. a man according to his praise. A man’s reputation tests him, burns out the dross, as a smelter tries silver or gold.
23. You must surely know the look of your flock. These words begin a multiline proverb on the virtues of responsible pastoralism that runs to the end of verse 27.
24. wealth. In a pastoral economy, wealth would be measured chiefly in flocks.
a crown. This term represents an intensification of the initial verset: not only is wealth transient, but even a crown (and the power and possessions that go with it) is not forever.
for time to come. Literally, “for generation after generation.”
25. The grass is gone, new grass appears. The grass, of course, is vital for feeding the flocks, and so it is important that there is a new growth each year.
26. he-goats, the price of a field. Fox’s explanation seems plausible: you can always sell off some of your goats to purchase more fields to pasture the rest.
27. goat’s milk. The word for goat means “she-goat” and is entirely different from the masculine term used in the previous verse.
viands. The literal sense is “life.” The usage may reflect an etymology analogous to “viands”—that which you live on.
CHAPTER 28
1The wicked man flees with no pursuer,
but the righteous are bold as a lion.
2Through the crime of a land, its princes are many,
but through a discerning man it is long-lasting.
3A poor man oppressing the lowly—
4Those who forsake teaching praise the wicked,
but those who keep the teaching confront them.
5Evil men do not understand justice,
but the LORD’s seekers understand all.
6Better a destitute man walking blameless
than one stubborn in his ways though rich.
7A discerning son keeps the teaching,
but one who consorts with gluttons shames his father.
8Who increases his wealth through interest and usury
will amass it for one kind to the poor.
9Who turns his ear from heeding instruction,
his very prayer is loathsomeness.
10Who misleads the upright to an evil way,
in his own pit he will fall,
and the blameless will inherit good.
11Wise in his own eyes is the rich man,
but the discerning poor will find him out.
12When the righteous rejoice, grand is the splendor,
but when the wicked rise up, man dons disguise.
13Who covers his crimes will not prosper,
but who admits and leaves off will be granted mercy.
14Happy the man who fears at all times,
but who hardens his heart will fall into harm.
15A growling lion and a famished bear—
a wicked ruler over a poor people,
16aa prince lacking discernment and great in oppression.
16bWho hates ill-gotten gains
will have length of days.
17A man oppressing by blood-guilt
flees to a pit.
Let none hold on to him.
18Who walks in blamelessness will be rescued,
but the crooked of ways will fall in a ditch.
19Who tills his soil is sated with bread,
but who pursues empty things is sated with poverty.
20A trustworthy man abounds in blessings,
but who to enrich himself rushes will not go scot-free.
21Favoritism is not good,
and for a crust of bread a man may do wrong.
22The miserly man rushes off after wealth,
unaware that want will befall him.
23Who rebukes another man will find more favor
than a smooth talker.
24Who robs his father and mother saying “It is no crime”
is a friend to a man who brings ruin.
25The greedy man stirs up strife,
but who trusts in the LORD flourishes.
26Who trusts in his own heart, he is a fool,
but who walks in wisdom, he will escape.
27Who gives to the destitute knows not want,
but who averts his eyes abounds in curses.
28When the wicked rise up, man hides,
and when they perish, the righteous are many.
CHAPTER 28 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. The wicked man flees … / the righteous are bold. The wicked, plagued by a guilty conscience, live in constant fear of divine retribution or legal punishment, whereas the righteous live in confidence.
2. Through the crime of a land, its princes are many. The possible but by no means certain meaning is that when a country is lawless, it produces many different contenders for power.
but through a discerning man it is long-lasting. As the translation reflects, the Hebrew text that has come down to us makes virtually no sense. Here is a more literal rendering: and through a discerning knowing man thus he (it?) is long-lasting. In the translation, “knowing” has been dropped as an apparent scribal doublet for “discerning.” Some interpreters claim that ken, “thus,” means “honesty,” which would then be the subject of “is long-lasting,” but when ken does not mean “thus,” it is an adjective, “honest,” not a noun. Emendations of this line have been unavailing.
3. A poor man oppressing the lowly. In an unjust economic hierarchy, even a poor person can exploit other disadvantaged people, or perhaps be used as a tool by the powerful to exploit them. This is a rare proverb in which the riddle image (“pounding [more literally, sweeping] rain without bread”) appears in the second verset—perhaps because there is also something of a riddle or at least a paradox in this first verset.
pounding rain without bread. Rain as a rule waters the soil, enabling the growth of grain. A torrential rain washes away the soil, making the growth of grain impossible. The poor man’s oppression of the lowly is purely destructive, and, in a kind of pun, he himself is without bread.
8. interest and usury. Though attempts have been made to discriminate between the two Hebrew terms, the distinction remains uncertain. The first of the terms, neshekh, etymo-logically means “bite” and so probably suggests excessive interest.
will amass it for one kind to the poor. This notion that ill-gotten gains will end up in the hands of the charitable is clearly wishful thinking.
10. and the blameless will inherit good. This third verset looks suspiciously like an addition to the original line.
12. man dons disguise. The verb yeḥupas can mean either “will be sought for”—yielding the sense that under the regime of the wicked decent people are hard to find, perhaps have to hide—or “is disguised,” that is, forced self-protectively to dissemble. Since the grand splendor of the first verset implies public display, the antithetical sense of disguise may be somewhat more likely.
14. fears. In context, this would be fear of doing evil or fear of retribution if evil is done.
16a. a prince lacking discernment and great in oppression. Despite the conventional verse break, influenced by the brevity of 16b, this verset, as Michael V. Fox notes, is clearly the third element of a triadic line characterizing the unjust ruler that begins in verse 15.
16b. Who hates ill-gotten gains / will have length of days. This proverb is scanned here as an abbreviated line with two versets, each having two beats in the Hebrew. But it is equally possible to represent it as a one-verset truncated line of poetry.
17. oppressing. The translation assumes ʿosheq, an active verb, instead of the passive ʿashuq, “oppressed,” of the Masoretic Text.
18. in a ditch. The received text reads beʾeḥat (“all at once”?), but the Syriac, more plausibly, reflects beshaḥat, “in a ditch.”
21. for a crust of bread a man may do wrong. If the first verset suggests that in justice—that is what the term for “favoritism” generally implies—one should not show partiality to the rich and powerful, then this clause probably means that a judge should also have compassion for the poor man who may have stolen out of sheer desperate hunger.
23. another man. The translation emends ʾadam aḥaray, “a man after me,” in the received text to ʾadam ʾaḥeir, “another man.”
26. he is a fool. This is an instance of what Fox calls a “gapped”—that is, elliptical—proverb. The wise man will escape from trouble, but the fool will not escape.
CHAPTER 29
1A man often rebuked who is stiff-necked,
will be suddenly broken beyond healing.
2When the righteous are many, a people rejoices,
but when the wicked man rules, a people groans.
3A man who loves wisdom will gladden his father,
but a chaser of whores will destroy wealth.
4A king makes a land stand firm through justice,
but a deceitful man destroys it.
5A man who flatters his fellow
spreads a net at his feet.
6In an evil man’s crime is a snare,
but the righteous is glad and rejoices.
7The righteous man knows the cause of the poor.
The wicked man does not grasp knowledge.
8Scoffing men fan the flames of a city,
but the wise will turn back wrath.
9When a wise man contends with a doltish man,
the dolt rages and mocks, with no calm.
10Bloody men hate the innocent,
but the upright look out for his life.
11The fool gives vent to his whole spirit,
but the wise man quells it.
12A ruler heeding a lying word—
all his servants are wicked.
13A pauper and a schemer meet—
the LORD gives light to the eyes of both.
14A king who judges the poor with honesty,
his throne will stand firm for all time.
15Rod and rebuke impart wisdom,
but a lad run loose shames his mother.
16When the wicked increase, crime increases,
but the righteous will witness their downfall.
17Reprove your son and he will give you ease,
and offer delicacies for your palate.
18Without vision a people turns wild,
but happy is he who follows the teaching.
19Through words a slave will not accept reproof,
though he understand, there will be no answer.
20Have you seen a man hasty in his words?
There is more hope for the dolt than for him.
21Who pampers his slave from youth,
in the end there will be dismay.
22An angry man stirs up strife,
and a hothead abounds in crime.
23A man’s pride will bring him low,
but the lowly of spirit will hold on to honor.
24Who shares with a thief hates himself,
he will hear the curse and will not tell.
25A man’s fear becomes a snare,
but he who trusts in the LORD will be safe.
26Many seek a ruler’s presence,
but a man’s judgment comes from the LORD.
27A wrongdoer is the loathing of the righteous,
and the wicked’s loathing, the man of straight ways.
CHAPTER 29 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. A man often rebuked. Literally, “a man of rebukes.”
2. When the righteous are many, a people rejoices. This proverb, like the next one and several others in this chapter, is no more than a formulation in verse of a platitude.
3. a chaser of whores will destroy wealth. The objection to consorting with whores is pragmatic, not moral—they will drain all your financial resources.
7. the cause of the poor. “Cause” here is used in its legal sense: the righteous man concerns himself with the struggle of the poor to get justice.
9. the dolt rages. The Hebrew merely says “he,” but “dolt” has been added in the translation to avoid the ambiguity of the pronoun’s antecedent.
10. look out for his life. The received text shows yevaqshu nafsho, “seek his life,” an idiom that everywhere else means to try to kill a person. This translation emends the verb to yevaqru, a difference of one consonant, producing a verb that can have the sense shown in this English version.
11. gives vent … / quells. This proverb articulates the view found elsewhere in the book that self-restraint and discretion are important attributes of wisdom.
13. A pauper and a schemer meet. The probable sense of “meet” here is that, for all the differences between these two categories of people, they share one point of commonality—that, whatever their intentions for evil or good and whatever the restrictions of their condition in life, they are equally dependent on God’s illumination in order to achieve insight or a state of well-being (giving light to the eyes may imply both).
16. the righteous will witness their downfall. The literal sense of the verb is “see,” reflecting a recurrent biblical idiom that implies triumph over one’s enemies because one survives to watch them come to a bad end.
17. your palate. The literal sense of the noun nefesh in context is either “throat” or “appetite.” The conjunction with “delicacies” argues against any other sense of this multivalent term.
19. Through words a slave will not accept reproof. The implication, unfortunately, is that the only way to reprove a slave effectively is to beat him. Egyptian Wisdom texts often reflect this idea.
though he understand, there will be no answer. The second verset spells out why it is that verbal reproof of a slave will be unavailing: even if he understands the criticism leveled against him, he will choose not to respond, given his refractory slave’s character.
21. dismay. The Hebrew manon appears nowhere else and is not readily linked with any verbal root that would make sense in context, which makes it look very much like a scribal error. Three different ancient versions render it in ways that point to a Hebrew text that showed manod. That noun, literally “shaking,” elliptical for “shaking of the head,” is a gesture performed when witnessing some sort of disaster.
23. low, / … lowly. In both instances, the Hebrew uses the same verbal stem, sh-p-l (tash-pilenu, shefal-ruah)̣, in a pointed antithesis.
24. he will hear the curse. The curse, or imprecation, is probably a solemn curse publicly pronounced that will come down on the head of whosoever has evidence of the crime to offer in court yet remains silent.
25. A man’s fear becomes a snare. The fearful man, in contradistinction to the man who trusts in the LORD, runs the danger of being tripped up by his own anxiety, imagining dangers where they are not and acting timorously where boldness is called for.
CHAPTER 30
1The words of Agur, son of Yaqeh, the oracle, utterance of the man, to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ukhal.
2For I am a brute among men,
and no human discernment have I.
3I have not learned wisdom,
nor the knowledge of the holy ones do I know.
4Who has gone up to the heavens and come down,
who has scooped up the wind in his palms?
Who has wrapped up the waters in a cloak.
Who has raised up all ends of the earth?
What is his name or the name of his son,
That you should know?
5Every saying of God is pure,
He is a shield to all who shelter in Him.
6Add nothing to His words,
lest He rebuke you and you be given the lie.
7Two things I have asked of You,
do not withhold them from me before I die.
8Falsehood and lying words keep far from me.
Privation and wealth do not give me.
9Lest I be sated and I renounce,
and I say, “Who is the LORD?”
And lest I lose all and I steal
and profane the name of my God.
10Do not denounce a slave to his master,
lest he revile you and you bear guilt.
11A generation that reviles its father
and its mother it does not bless.
12A generation that is pure in its eyes
though it has not been washed of its filth.
13A generation, how haughty its eyes,
and its eyelids, how arrogant.
14A generation whose teeth are swords,
to devour the lowly from the earth
and the impoverished from humankind.
15aThe leech has two daughters: “Give!” “Give!”
Three things are there that are not sated,
15bfour that do not say, “Enough!”:
16Sheol and a blocked womb,
the earth unsated with water
and fire, which does not say “Enough!”
17An eye that mocks a father
and scorns submission to a mother,
the rooks of the river will gouge it,
and the eagle’s young will devour it.
18Three things are there too wondrous for me,
and four that I cannot know:
19the eagle’s way in the heavens,
the way of the snake on a rock,
the ship’s way in the heart of the sea,
and the way of a man in a young woman.
20This is the way of an adulterous woman—
and says, “I did nothing wrong.”
21For three things does the earth shudder,
and for four, it cannot bear it:
22for a slave who rules
and a scoundrel who is sated with bread,
23for a hateful woman in the marriage bed,
and a slavegirl who dispossesses her mistress.
24Four things are the smallest on earth,
yet they are the very wisest:
25the ants, a people not strong,
who ready their bread in the summer,
26the badgers, a people not mighty,
who make their home in the cleft,
27the locusts, who have no king,
28the spider, who can be caught with hands,
yet is in the palace of kings.
29Three things stride handsomely
and four things handsomely walk:
30the lion, mightiest of beasts,
who does not turn back from anything,
31the rooster and the he-goat,
and the king against whom none can stand.
32If you have been a scoundrel in arrogance,
and if you have schemed—put a hand on your mouth!
33For squeezed milk produces butter,
and a squeezed nose produces blood,
and squeezed patience produces a quarrel.
CHAPTER 30 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. The words of Agur. As this heading makes clear, the unit that follows (which probably ends with verse 9) is distinct from the rest of the Book of Proverbs. The two terms that follow, “oracle,” masaʾ, and “utterance,” neʾum, are usually reserved for vatic or prophetic speech, a kind of discourse uncharacteristic of Proverbs. What follows is a first-person, incipiently confessional statement unlike anything that has preceded in this book. The name Agur is otherwise unattested.
to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ukhal. These names, and the repetition, are enigmatic. Many scholars revocalize them and change the word divisions of the consonantal text to yield three verbs. Thus Fox proposes the following: “I am weary, God, / I am weary, and have wasted away.” Although it is possible that this was the original reading in the Hebrew, there is no warrant for it in the ancient versions, and it remains conjectural.
3. I have not learned wisdom. This proclamation is a counterpoint to the prevailing emphasis of Proverbs. Agur, humbly aware of his limitations before a transcendent God (see the next verse), says in effect that any wisdom he might have pretended to attain amounts to nothing.
the knowledge of the holy ones. While an exegetical tradition going back to the Middle Ages understands qedoshim as “the Holy One,” the Hebrew noun is plural. It is true that the most common name for God, ʾelohim, is plural in form though singular in meaning, but the evidence that qedoshim works in the same way is not altogether convincing. The most likely reference would be to angelic beings.
4. Who has gone up to the heavens and come down. Only someone who could negotiate this trajectory, patently impossible for mortal man, would be capable of achieving divine wisdom.
the waters … / the earth. These are the two principal elements of the biblical cosmogony.
What is his name or the name of his son. This formulation has obviously invited Christological readings that would not have been within the purview of the Hebrew poet, writing several centuries before the emergence of Christian doctrine. In the patrilineal society of ancient Israel, a man’s full name was his given name and the name of his father (for example, Isaiah son of Amoz), as in our society it is the given name and the family name.
6. Add nothing to His words. This injunction is in keeping with Deuteronomy 4:2. The burden of this verse and the preceding one is a pious counterweight (perhaps for that reason appealing to the editor) to the idea of wisdom as a kind of craft with human instructors that predominates in the book: all wisdom comes from God through His revealed words, and no mere human should tamper with them.
7. do not withhold them from me before I die. This existential urgency is of a piece with Agur’s distinctive confessional mode.
8. Provide me my allotted bread. This clause does not constitute a third thing but is simply the condition to which Agur aspires after his two wishes are granted—freedom from false-hood, neither privation nor wealth—and then he will be content with a modest material sufficiency.
9. Lest I be sated and I renounce. Too many worldly goods may lead a person to feel he has no need for God. Compare Deuteronomy 32:15.
And lest I lose all and I steal / and profane the name of my God. These words sketch out a miniature narrative: first the person dismisses God as he revels in his abundant possessions; then he becomes impoverished and resorts to crime, thus profaning God’s name.
10. Do not denounce a slave to his master. This proverb, in the form of a negative injunction, is unlike the words of Agur in form and substance and also could not belong to the “generation” sequence that begins in the next verse. An editor may have inserted it here because, like both lines of verse 9, it has a “lest” clause.
11. A generation that reviles its father. Here begins an independent unit of four verses (five lines of poetry) that deploys “a generation” as an emphatic anaphora at the beginning of every line but the last. The content is purely denunciatory, in a style reminiscent of the Prophets, and there is nothing here but negative characterizations of the generation in a series of subordinate clauses, with no actual grammatical predicate.
12. filth. The Hebrew tsoʾah implies excremental filth, though it is not really scatological.
14. meat cleavers. The relatively rare term maʾakhelet (also used in the story of the Binding of Isaac in Genesis 22) is not an ordinary knife but the kind of knife used to butcher meat.
15a. The leech has two daughters. This succinct aphorism is restricted to a single verset. One should probably assume, as most commentators have, that there is an implied human referent—a greedy person, or perhaps a greedy woman, because the Hebrew for “leech” is a feminine noun. Some interpreters see the two daughters as a reference to the two suckers of the leech.
15a–15b. Three things … / four. This little numerical progression is traditional in a certain line of biblical poetry. Compare Amos 1:3: “For three trespasses of Damascus / and for four I will not turn it back.”
16. Sheol and a blocked womb. A parallelism between Sheol (the biblical netherworld) and the womb appears elsewhere in biblical poetry. H. N. Bialik, the great modern Hebrew poet, in a poem expressing revulsion after a sexual encounter with a woman, refers to her “hidden treasures that like Sheol cannot be sated.” Here, Sheol is never sated with the dead, always wanting more, and the blocked womb, in an ironic antithesis, is never satisfied with its condition of barrenness, always hungry to produce life.
19. heavens / … rock / … sea / … young woman. There is a kind of wry wit in this sequence. The speaker imagines bird, reptile, and vessel passing through the remote regions of sky, earth, and sea that are beyond his ken. Then the fourth term invokes another place inaccessible to the imagination of the male speaker—a woman’s sexual mystery, known only to her lover. The preposition “in” here before “a young woman” is meant to be understood literally—that is, in a physiological sense—as many interpreters through the ages have in fact understood it.
20. This is the way of the adulterous woman. This worldly observation interrupts the series of three-four sayings. It may have been inserted here because of “the way” and because of the sexual reference at the end of the preceding verse.
she eats and wipes her mouth. Elsewhere in Proverbs, an analogy between mouth and vagina is implied (for example, chapter 5).
23. for a hateful woman in the marriage bed. In the Hebrew, “in the marriage bed” is a passive verb, which means “is married/is sexually possessed.” Fox’s proposal to revocalize the verb tibaʿel as tivʿal and to understand it as “gain mastery” is unconvincing because b-ʿ-l does not appear in this sense as an intransitive verb elsewhere (despite the noun baʿal, which does mean “master” as well as “husband”). The transitive verb generally has the sexual sense indicated above. The hateful woman enjoying conjugal consummation is part of a series of figures whose fate is disturbingly not what it should be, after the slave who rules and the scoundrel who prospers, and before the slavegirl who dispossesses her mistress.
24. smallest on earth, / yet they are the very wisest. Though diminutive in size, they evince wisdom in how they dispose themselves. This proverb thus celebrates the value of wisdom over sheer size or strength and implies that people should learn from these small creatures.
27. march out all in a row. While it is questionable whether locusts assemble themselves in such neat formation, the idea is suggested by the perception of the mass of locusts as an invading army that sweeps away everything in its path, despite the smallness of its individual constituents.
28. the spider. There is some doubt about the identity of this creature. In any case, it is something small and easily caught, probably some sort of insect, that nevertheless is able to do what no ordinary human can: penetrate the palaces of kings.
the palace of kings. The Hebrew has a plural for “palace” and a singular for “kings.”
31. the rooster. The Hebrew zarzir has been identified with several different creatures. Compounding the puzzle, it is attached here to the noun motnayim, “loins,” and nobody has come up with a satisfactory explanation of this epithet, if that is what it is.
33. For squeezed milk. This entire verse has the ring of a folk saying. The term myts, “squeezed” (literally “squeezing [of]”), has been stretched in this saying to cover the churning of milk, though that is not its usual meaning.
patience. Some understand the Hebrew ʾapayim to mean “wrath.” The singular form ʾaf means precisely that, but the doublative ʾapayim (when it does not mean face) appears only in the idiom ʾerekh ʾapayim, “patience” (literally, “long [or slow] in anger”). That idiom, in fact, occurs several times in Proverbs. If you push milk hard, it turns into something else, butter; if you push a nose hard, it spurts blood, something that does not usually come out of a nose; and if you push someone’s patience hard, it turns into impatience, leading to a quarrel.
CHAPTER 31
1The words of Lemuel, king of Massa, with which his mother reproved him:
2No, my son. Oh, no, son of my womb,
3Do not give your vigor to women,
nor your ways to destroyers of kings.
4Not for kings, Lemuel, not for kings,
the drinking of wine, nor for rulers, strong drink.
5Lest he drink and forget inscribed law,
and reverse the judgment of all wretched men.
6Give strong drink to the perishing man
and wine to those deeply embittered.
7Let him drink and forget his privation,
and his misery let him no more recall.
8Open your mouth for the dumb,
for the judgment of all fleeting folk.
9Open your mouth, judge righteously,
grant justice to the poor and the wretched.
10A worthy woman who can find?ℵ
Her price is far beyond rubies.
11The heart of her husband trusts her,ב
12She repays him good and not evilג
all the days of her life.
13She seeks out wool and flaxד
and performs with willing hands.
14She is like merchant ships,ה
from afar she brings her bread.
15She gets up while it is still nightו
and provides nourishment for her house
and a portion for her young women.
16She sets her mind on a field and buys it,ז
from the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
17She girds her loins in strengthח
and gives power to her arms.
18She understands that her wares are good,ט
her lamp does not go out at night.
19Her hands she reaches out to the distaff,י
and her palms hold on to the spindle.
20Her palm she opens to the poor,כ
and her hands she extends to the wretched.
21She does not fear for her household because of snow,ל
for her whole household is clothed in scarlet.
22Covers she makes for herself,מ
linen and purple, her garments.
23Her husband is famed in the gatesנ
when he sits with the land’s elders.
24Fine cloth she makes, and she sells it,ס
a loincloth she gives to the trader.
25Strength and grandeur are her garment,ע
and she laughs at the day to come.
26She opens her mouth in wisdom,פ
teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
27She looks after the ways of her house,צ
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
28Her sons rise and call her happy,ק
her husband, he praises her:
29“Many daughters have done worthy things,ר
but you—you surpass them all.”
30Grace is a lie and beauty mere breath—ש
a LORD-fearing woman, it is she who is praised.
31Give her from the fruit of her hands,ת
and let her deeds praise her in the gates.
CHAPTER 31 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. Lemuel. The name is unusual and nothing is known about him, not even whether he is a historical figure or a literary invention. In any case, this is still another unit of Wisdom exhortation, distinctive stylistically and rhetorically, that the anthologist has culled from an unknown source and decided to include. The advice here of a queen mother to her son has no precedent elsewhere in the book.
Massa. A kingdom in north Arabia.
with which his mother reproved him. The mother rather than the father in the role of the one who gives musar—reproof, admonitory moral exhortation—is unusual, though in the preceding body of proverbs there are frequent pairings of father and mother as the joint source of instruction. Her warning him not to consort with loose women—or, perhaps better, with gold diggers—is especially apt coming from a mother, as is the admonition to stay away from drink.
2. son of my vows. This locution suggests that she may have taken vows in a prayer for pregnancy, like Hannah in 1 Samuel 1.
3. vigor. The Hebrew ḥayil is not an explicitly sexual term; it can also suggest “wealth.” In verse 10, it is used in a slightly different though related sense.
destroyers. The translation, following a Hebrew fragment found in the Cairo Geniza, reads lemoḥot instead of lamḥot, “to destroy.”
4. Not for kings. A monarch has to exercise lucid judgment in determining state policy and administering justice, so he above all men should avoid drunkenness.
strong drink. The Hebrew sheikhar (from a root indicating intoxication) is not beer, as some interpreters claim, but in all likelihood is grappa. Judges 13:14 makes clear that it is an alcoholic beverage other than wine that is extracted from grapes.
6. Give strong drink to the perishing man. While the monarch should avoid alcohol, for the poor man it can provide a way of temporarily forgetting his wretchedness.
7. misery. The Hebrew ʿamal means both “toil” (its usual sense in Qohelet) and “misery” or “wretchedness” (its usual sense in Job).
8. Open your mouth for the dumb. It is the obligation of a king to speak out on behalf of those lacking the power, capacity, or boldness to speak.
all fleeting folk. The Hebrew beney ḥalof (“those who are to pass away”) might mean ephemeral or mortal human beings, as it does in modern Hebrew, or it might designate a specific disadvantaged segment of the population teetering on the brink of death, like “the perishing man” in verse 6.
10. A worthy woman who can find? This concluding unit of the Book of Proverbs is an alphabetic acrostic (the Hebrew letter for each line appears in the margin). Thus, “a worthy woman” is ʾeshet ḥayil, the first word beginning with ʾaleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Ḥayil means vigor, strength, worth, substance. It is a martial term transferred to civic life. Some have proposed that the term invites us to see this exemplary wife as a heroic figure, a kind of domestic warrior. It is noteworthy that the editors chose to conclude the book, in which instruction by male mentors to young men predominates, with a portrait of the ideal wife.
11. prize. The usual meaning of the Hebrew shalal is “booty.” The choice of this term might be an argument for an activation of the martial connotation of ḥayil in the previous line.
12. She repays him good and not evil. The editor may well have seen in this line a pointed antithesis to the sundry evocations of shrewish wives and adulterous wives in the body of the book.
13. willing hands. This apt phrase is borrowed from Fox. The literal sense of the whole Hebrew clause is “[she] performs with will/desire/delight with her palms.”
15. a portion for her young women. These would be the female servants or slaves of the household, which is clearly a substantial one.
16. She sets her mind on a field and buys it. The exemplary wife is active not only domestically, acquiring wool and flax, weaving and sewing, but also as a businesswoman.
from the fruit of her hands. As Fox notes, this means that she uses her earnings to buy property.
20. Her palm … / her hands. These terms form a neat chiasm with the preceding line: hands (a), palms (b), palm (b’), hands (a’).
21. her whole household is clothed in scarlet. This is a hyperbole: warm wool garments would suffice to keep everyone in the household comfortable through the winter, but the clothing she provides is regally sumptuous as well as warm.
23. Her husband is famed in the gates. Evidently, he is able to participate in the deliberations of justice while she is busy providing for the needs of their household. But the affluence that she has made possible also enables him to hold his head up among the elders.
24. the trader. The Hebrew says “Canaanite,” a gentilic term that is also the designation of a profession because of the prominence of Canaanites—perhaps assimilated to Phoenicians—as traders.
25. the day to come. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “the latter day,” which is to say, the future, something she need not fear because she has provided so well for her household.
29. Many daughters have done worthy things. At this penultimate point in the poem, the thematic term ḥayil, “worthy,” recurs. It is also strategically effective that the husband, who has benefited from the wife’s prodigious efforts, and until now has been in the background of the poem, trusting his wife and sitting with the elders in the gates, steps forward to address her in superlative praise. The force of the direct address is underscored by the emphatic use of the second-person singular feminine pronoun ʾat in the second verset: “but you—you surpass them all.”
31. Give her from the fruit of her hands. Let her enjoy the benefits of the affluence she has amassed, and at the same time let her be praised for what she has achieved.
