Proverbs 11:28-30

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Proverbs 11:28 sn The implication from the parallelism is that the righteous do not trust in their own riches, but in the Lord.
2. Proverbs 11:28 tn Heb “leafage” or “leaf” (cf. KJV “as a branch”); TEV “leaves of summer”; NLT “leaves in spring.” The simile of a leaf is a figure of prosperity and fertility throughout the ancient Near East.
3. Proverbs 11:29 tn The verb עָכַר (ʿakhar, “to trouble”) refers to actions which make life difficult for one’s family (BDB 747 s.v.). He will be cut out of the family inheritance.
4. Proverbs 11:29 tn Heb “his house.” The term בֵּית (bet, “house”) is a synecdoche of container (= house) for its contents (= family, household).
5. Proverbs 11:29 tn Heb “the wind” (so KJV, NCV, NLT); NAB “empty air.” The word “wind” (רוּחַ, ruakh) refers to what cannot be grasped (Prov 27:16; Eccl 1:14, 17). The figure is a hypocatastasis, comparing wind to what he inherits—nothing he can put his hands on. Cf. CEV “won’t inherit a thing.”
6. Proverbs 11:29 sn The “fool” here is the “troubler” of the first half. One who mismanages his affairs so badly so that there is nothing for the family may have to sell himself into slavery to the wise. The ideas of the two halves of the verse are complementary.
7. Proverbs 11:29 tn Heb “the wise of mind.” The noun לֵב (lev, “mind, heart”) functions as a genitive of specification: “wise in the mind” or “wise-minded.” Cf. “wisehearted” NASB; “wise of heart” ESV, NKJV. The term לֵב represents the person in this case (a synecdoche of part for the whole) because it is the seat of thinking and wisdom; see BDB 525 s.v. 7.
8. Proverbs 11:30 tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.
9. Proverbs 11:30 tn Heb “tree of life” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV). The noun חַיִּים (khayyim, “life”) is genitive of product. What the righteous produce (“fruit”) is like a tree of life—a long and healthy life as well as a life-giving influence and provision for others.
10. Proverbs 11:30 tc The Leningrad Codex, one of the most authoritative witnesses to the Hebrew text, mistakenly vocalized ש as שׂ (sin) instead of שׁ (shin). The result, נְפָשׂוֹת (n^efasot), is not a word. Early printed editions of the Masoretic Text, other medieval Hebrew mss, read correctly נְפָשׁוֹת (n^efashot, “souls”).
11. Proverbs 11:30 tc The MT reads חָכָם (khakham, “wise”) and seems to refer to capturing (לָקַח, laqakh; “to lay hold of; to seize; to capture”) people with influential ideas (e.g., 2 Sam 15:6). An alternate textual tradition reads חָמָס (khamas) “violent” (reflected in the LXX and Syriac) and refers to taking away lives: “but the one who takes away lives (= kills people) is violent” (cf. NAB, NRSV, TEV). The textual variant was caused by orthographic confusion of ס (samek) and כ (kaf), and metathesis of מ (mem) between the second and third consonants. If the parallelism is synonymous, the MT reading fits; if the parallelism is antithetical, the alternate tradition fits. See D. C. Snell, “‘Taking Souls’ in Proverbs 11:30, ” VT 33 (1083): 362-65.