Proverbs

These are the wise sayings of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel.

1The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;

Note"Proverb" translates the Hebrew *mashal*, a much wider word than the English one: it covers a short saying, an extended comparison, a taunt, or a puzzle. Solomon was remembered as Israel's wisest king (tenth century BC); the book collects sayings attributed to him along with material credited to others later on (see chapters 30 and 31).

2They are here so you can learn wisdom and self-control, and understand words that give insight.

2To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;

Note"Instruction" (Hebrew *musar*) means training that includes correction, being disciplined, not just being informed. "Wisdom" (*hokmah*) is practical skill at living, the same word used of a craftsman's skill with his hands; it is not abstract cleverness.

3They are here so you can accept training in living wisely, and in doing what is right, fair, and honest.

3To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;

Note"Justice" and "judgment" are courtroom words, and "equity" translates a word meaning straightness, dealing fairly and without crookedness in ordinary business, not only in a legal setting.

4They give good sense to people who are easily fooled, and knowledge and careful judgment to the young.

4To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.

Note"The simple" (Hebrew *pethi*) means someone open and untaught, easily talked into anything either way, not someone unintelligent. KJV "subtilty" carried no bad sense in 1611; it meant shrewdness. The Hebrew word behind it can mean either prudence or craftiness depending on what it is used for.

5Let the wise person listen and learn even more, and let the person who already understands gain skill in giving good advice.

5A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

6Then he will understand proverbs and word pictures, the sayings of wise people and their riddles.

6To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.

Note"Dark sayings" translates *hidah*, a riddle or deliberately puzzling saying, the same word used of the riddle Samson set at his wedding.

7Respect and awe toward the LORD is where knowledge begins, but fools hate wisdom and correction.

7The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

NoteWhere the KJV prints LORD in capitals it stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants that Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud. "Fear" here covers a range from dread to reverence. "Beginning" is also two-sided in Hebrew: it can mean the first step in learning, or the chief part of it.

8My son, listen to your father's teaching, and do not turn away from your mother's instruction.

8My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

Note"Law" translates *torah*, which simply means teaching or direction, household instruction here, not legislation. Mother and father are named as equal teachers.

9They will be like a wreath of flowers on your head and a chain hanging around your neck.

9For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

NoteA wreath worn on the head and a chain around the neck were marks of honor, worn at feasts and by people of rank, the point of comparison is visible distinction, not decoration.

10My son, if sinners try to talk you into joining them, do not give in.

10My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

11They may say, "Come with us. Let's hide and wait to spill blood. Let's ambush an innocent person for no reason at all.

11If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:

Note"Lay wait for blood" is a Hebrew idiom in which "blood" stands for a life violently taken; the phrase means to lie in ambush to kill.

12Let's swallow them alive the way the grave does, swallow them whole, like people who drop into a pit.

12Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:

Note"The grave" translates *Sheol*, the underworld where in Hebrew thought all the dead go, often pictured as a mouth that swallows. "The pit" is a parallel name for the same place. To swallow someone "alive" and "whole" pictures a death so sudden that the victim goes down intact.

13We will find all kinds of valuable things. We will fill our houses with what we take.

13We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:

Note"Spoil" means plunder, goods taken by force from those they attack.

14Throw in your lot with us. We will all share one money bag."

14Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:

NoteLots (marked stones or sticks) were the standard way of dividing plunder or property into fair shares. "One purse" means a single common fund: everything taken is pooled and split, which is what makes each member equally implicated.

15My son, do not walk down that road with them. Keep your feet off their path.

15My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:

16Their feet run toward evil, and they are quick to spill blood.

16For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

NoteThis verse is missing from some ancient copies of Proverbs and matches Isaiah 59:7 word for word, so it may have been copied in here from there.

17It is useless to spread out a net while the bird is watching you do it.

17Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.

NoteThe saying is compact and has been read two ways: either that spreading a net in a bird's sight is pointless because the bird will simply avoid it, or that a creature greedy enough will fly into a trap it can plainly see. The Hebrew does not settle which.

18But these men are lying in wait for their own blood. They are hiding to ambush their own lives.

18And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.

19That is how it ends for everyone greedy for dishonest gain: it takes the life of the one who has it.

19So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

Note"Gain" translates *betsa*, profit got by cutting corners or cutting throats, the word carries dishonesty in itself. The last clause is ambiguous in Hebrew: the gain takes the life either of those who grab it, or of those it is grabbed from.

20Wisdom calls out loud in the street. She raises her voice in the open square.

20Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:

NoteWisdom is presented as a woman speaking in public, the Hebrew noun is feminine, and the figure that follows behaves like a street preacher or a prophet, addressing passers-by where they gather rather than in a temple or school.

21She cries out where the crowds are thickest, at the entrances of the city gates. In the city she speaks her words:

21She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,

NoteThe gateway of a walled city was its civic center: law cases were heard there, business was transacted, and news was exchanged. It was the place to speak if you wanted to be heard by everyone.

22"You who are easily fooled, how long will you love being that way? How long will those who sneer enjoy sneering, and fools hate knowledge?

22How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

NoteProverbs uses a fixed vocabulary of types. The "simple" are the untaught and persuadable; "scorners" are those who mock correction and make a habit of it; the "fool" (*kesil*) is stubborn and unteachable by choice rather than stupid.

23Turn back when I correct you. Then I will pour out my spirit on you and make my words known to you.

23Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

NoteThe Hebrew opening can be read as a command ("turn back") or as a statement about what did not happen ("if you had turned back, I would have..."), which is why translations differ so widely here. "Spirit" translates *ruach*, meaning breath or wind; pouring out one's *ruach* means speaking one's mind freely.

24But I called and you refused. I held out my hand and no one paid any attention.

24Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

NoteStretching out the hand was the ordinary gesture for beckoning someone over or claiming a hearing, as a speaker does to quiet a crowd.

25You ignored every piece of advice I gave, and you wanted none of my correction.

25But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:

26So I will laugh when disaster falls on you. I will mock when the thing you dread arrives,

26I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;

Note"Your fear" uses the word for the emotion to mean the thing that causes it, the disaster itself, not the feeling. The same shift runs through the next verse.

27when what you dread comes like a violent storm, and your ruin comes like a whirlwind, when trouble and pain crush you.

27When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.

28Then they will call to me, but I will not answer. They will search hard for me, but they will not find me.

28Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

Note"Seek me early" renders a Hebrew verb built on the word for dawn; it means to search urgently and hard, not to search in good time.

29That is because they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD.

29For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

30They wanted none of my advice. They thought nothing of my correction.

30They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.

31So they will eat the fruit that grew from the way they lived. They will be filled up with their own schemes.

31Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

NoteEating the fruit of one's own way is a standard Hebrew image for reaping the consequences of one's own conduct. "Devices" in 1611 English means plans or schemes, with no sense of gadgets.

32Turning away is what kills people who are easily fooled, and their careless comfort is what destroys fools.

32For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

Note"Turning away" translates a word for straying off a road or defecting. KJV "prosperity" is misleading now: the Hebrew word means untroubled ease or complacency, being comfortable enough not to bother.

33But whoever listens to me will live in safety, calm and free from the fear of harm."

33But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

Note"Evil" here translates a word meaning harm or disaster rather than wickedness; the promise is freedom from dread of catastrophe.