Proverbs 20

Wine makes a fool of you, and strong drink starts fights. Anyone who is led astray by them is not wise.

1Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.

Note"Strong drink" translates Hebrew *shekar*, a fermented drink made from grain, dates or other fruit rather than grapes. Distilled spirits did not exist; the contrast is between grape wine and other kinds of alcohol, not between weak and hard liquor.

2The fear a king causes is like the roar of a lion. Whoever makes him angry is risking his own life.

2The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: whoso provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul.

3It brings a man honor to settle a quarrel, but any fool will pick a fight.

3It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling.

4The lazy man will not plow because it is cold. So at harvest time he goes looking for a crop and finds nothing.

4The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing.

NotePlowing in ancient Israel was done in the autumn and early winter, after the first rains had softened ground baked hard through the dry summer. The cold season was exactly when the work had to be done, so the excuse costs him the whole year's crop.

5The plans inside a person's heart are like deep water, but a person with understanding draws them up.

5Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out.

NoteThe image behind the verse is a well: the plans lie deep, and the person of understanding lowers a bucket and hauls them up. Same word used of drawing water.

6Many a man announces how loyal and good he is, but who can find a man who can actually be trusted?

6Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?

Note"Goodness" here is Hebrew *hesed*, the steady loyalty owed to family, friends and allies, the kind you can count on. The proverb turns on the gap between advertising that quality and actually having it.

7The man who does what is right lives an honest life all the way through, and his children after him are blessed.

7The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.

8A king seated on his judgment seat sifts out everything evil with his eyes.

8A king that sitteth in the throne of judgment scattereth away all evil with his eyes.

NoteKings in the ancient Near East were the highest court, hearing cases in person. The verb translated "sifts out" is a farming word for winnowing, tossing threshed grain into the air so the wind carries the chaff away. Compare the threshing image in verse 26.

9Who can say, "I have kept my heart clean; I am free from my sin"?

9Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?

10Weights that do not match and measures that do not match: the LORD hates them both.

10Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD.

NoteLiterally "a stone and a stone, an ephah and an ephah." Merchants weighed silver against stone weights and measured grain with a dry measure called an ephah. A cheat carried two sets: heavy stones for buying, light ones for selling.

11Even a child is known by what he does, whether his behavior is pure and right.

11Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.

NoteThe word for "child" (*na'ar*) covers anyone from a young boy to a man not yet fully established: it is not restricted to small children.

12Ears that hear and eyes that see, the LORD made them both.

12The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them.

13Do not love sleep, or you will end up poor. Keep your eyes open, and you will have plenty of food.

13Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.

14"It's worthless, it's worthless," says the buyer. Then he walks away and brags about what he got.

14It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.

NoteHaggling was normal in the marketplace: the buyer runs down the goods to drive the price down, then walks off pleased with the bargain he talked his way into.

15There is gold, and there are plenty of rubies, but lips that speak knowledge are a rare treasure.

15There is gold, and a multitude of rubies: but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.

Note"Rubies" is a guess at a Hebrew word (*peninim*) whose meaning is uncertain; it may mean red coral or pearls. The point is simply that it was among the most costly things known.

16Take the coat of the man who has promised to cover a stranger's debt, and hold something of his as security when he backs a foreigner.

16Take his garment that is surety for a stranger: and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.

NoteThe garment is the outer cloak, the standard item taken as security on a loan, the law required it be handed back each night because a poor man slept in it. The proverb's advice is: someone reckless enough to guarantee a stranger's debt is a bad credit risk, so take the pledge. The Hebrew has two readings here, one meaning "foreigners" (plural) and one "a foreign woman"; the King James follows the second.

17Food gotten by cheating tastes sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth is full of gravel.

17Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.

NoteBread was ground on stone querns, and grit from the stones regularly ended up in the loaf, a familiar, teeth-cracking unpleasantness. Sweet in the mouth at first, gravel at the end.

18Plans are made solid by getting advice, so wage war only with good guidance.

18Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.

NoteThe word rendered "guidance" comes from the ropes used to steer a ship; it means skilled direction from someone who knows how to handle the thing.

19A person who goes around carrying stories gives away secrets. So have nothing to do with a man whose lips run on with flattery.

19He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.

NoteThe last phrase is literally "one who opens his lips wide", a man who cannot keep his mouth shut. Older translations read it as flattery; either way the advice is to keep clear of him.

20Whoever curses his father or his mother will have his lamp snuffed out in total darkness.

20Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.

Note"Curse" means to call down harm on someone, not bad language; cursing a parent was a capital offense under Israelite law. The lamp is the small household oil lamp kept burning through the night, putting it out stands for a life and a family line coming to an end.

21An inheritance can be grabbed in a hurry at the start, but in the end it will not be blessed.

21An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof shall not be blessed.

NoteThe picture is of an inheritance seized ahead of time (extracted early from a living parent, or taken at the expense of the other heirs), rather than received in due course. Some Hebrew manuscripts read "gotten greedily" instead of "hastily."

22Do not say, "I will pay back this wrong." Wait for the LORD, and he will save you.

22Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee.

NotePayback for injury was a matter for the courts and, in some cases, for a designated family avenger; the proverb tells the private individual to step out of that role, not to deny that the wrong was real.

23The LORD hates weights that do not match, and scales that cheat are no good.

23Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good.

24A man's steps come from the LORD. How, then, can anyone understand his own way?

24Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

25It is a trap for a person to set something apart as holy without thinking, and only afterward to look hard at the promises he made.

25It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy, and after vows to make enquiry.

NoteSomething "set apart as holy" was handed over to the sanctuary, an animal, produce, silver, sometimes a person's own service. Such vows were binding and expensive to buy back, so a rash promise was a trap the man had built himself.

26A wise king separates out the wicked and drives the threshing wheel over them.

26A wise king scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them.

NoteA threshing sledge was a heavy board or wheeled cart dragged over spread-out grain by oxen to break the husks off. The king separates out the guilty the way a farmer separates grain from chaff, then runs the sledge over them.

27A person's spirit is the LORD's lamp; it searches every hidden place deep inside him.

27The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.

Note"Candle" in 1611 English meant any small light; here it is an oil lamp. "Inward parts of the belly" is a Hebrew way of saying the innermost, hidden self, the ancients located thought and feeling in the organs of the torso, where we would say the mind or the heart.

28Loyal love and faithfulness keep a king safe, and his throne is held up by loyal love.

28Mercy and truth preserve the king: and his throne is upholden by mercy.

Note"Mercy and truth" translates a fixed Hebrew pair, *hesed we'emet*, steady loyalty and dependability. It is the language of keeping faith with the people you are bound to, not of feeling kindly toward them.

29The glory of young men is their strength, and the splendor of old men is their gray hair.

29The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the grey head.

NoteGray hair marked a man who had survived to old age in a society where that was uncommon, and it carried real standing: the elders who judged disputes at the town gate were literally the old men.

30Blows that leave bruises scrub evil away, and beatings clean out a person's inmost parts.

30The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.

Note"Blueness" is the dark bruise raised by a blow. The verse describes physical punishment, and the Hebrew is difficult: it can be read as a statement that beatings scour out wrongdoing, or as an observation about how such punishment was thought to work. "Inward parts of the belly" again means the innermost self.