Proverbs 26:11-12

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Proverbs 26:11 sn The simile is graphic and debasing (cf. 2 Peter 2:22).
2. Proverbs 26:11 sn The point is clear: Fools repeat their disgusting mistakes, or to put it another way, whenever we repeat our disgusting mistakes we are fools. The proverb is affirming that no matter how many times a fool is warned, he never learns.
3. Proverbs 26:12 tn Most translations render the verse as a question (“Have you seen…?” so KJV, NASB, NIV, ESV, Holman) while sometimes this construction is turned into a conditional sentence. But the Hebrew has a perfect verb form (רָאִיתָ; raʾita), expecting past time, without an interrogative or conditional marker. See the note at Prov 26:16.
4. Proverbs 26:12 tn Heb “in his own eyes” (so ESV, NASB, NIV).
5. Proverbs 26:12 sn Previous passages in the book of Proverbs all but deny the possibility of hope for the fool. So this proverb is saying there is absolutely no hope for the self-conceited person, and there might be a slight hope for the fool—he may yet figure out that he really is a fool.