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10 My son, if sinners (A)entice you,
(B)Do not be willing.

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Admonition to Avoid Easy but Unjust Riches

10 My child, if sinners[a] try to entice[b] you,
do not consent![c]

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 1:10 tn The term חַטָּא (khattaʾ) is the common word for “sinner” in the OT. Because the related verb is used once of sling throwers who miss the mark (Judg 20:16), the idea of sin is often explained as “missing the moral mark” (BDB 306-8 s.v.). But the term should not be restricted to simply falling short of the moral ideal. Its basic meaning is to do wrongly. For a slinger or an archer that would mean missing the mark, but in the arena of morality and relationships, behaving wrongly refers to committing an offense or sinning, doing what is wrong. Here it involves the conscious intent to harm, referring to a gang of robbers.
  2. Proverbs 1:10 tn The Piel stem of the verb פָּתָה (patah) means “to persuade, entice” (BDB 834 s.v. פָּתָה 1; see, e.g., Judg 14:15; 16:5; Prov 16:29; Hos 2:16). In this context, the imperfect form יְפַתּוּךָ (yefattukha) considers the process of offering persuasion rather than the result of someone being persuaded and may be nuanced modally: “(If) they attempt to persuade you.”
  3. Proverbs 1:10 tc The MT reads the root אָבָה (ʾavah, “to be willing; to consent”). Some medieval Hebrew mss read the root בּוֹא (boʾ, “to go”): “do not go with them.” The majority of Hebrew mss and the versions support the MT reading, which is the less common word and so the more likely original reading.

31 If (A)the righteous will be repaid in the earth,
How much more the wicked and the sinner!

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31 If the righteous are recompensed on earth,[a]
how much more[b] the wicked sinner![c]

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 11:31 tc The LXX introduces a new idea: “If the righteous be scarcely saved” (reflected in 1 Pet 4:18). The Greek translation “scarcely” could have come from a Vorlage of בַּצָּרָה (batsarah, “deficiency” or “want”) or בָּצַּר (batsar, “to cut off; to shorten”) perhaps arising from confusion over the letters בָּאָרֶץ (baʾarets, “on the land/earth”). The verb “receive due” could only be translated “saved” by an indirect interpretation. See J. Barr, “בארץ ~ ΜΟΛΙΣ: Prov. XI.31, I Pet. IV.18, ” JSS 20 (1975): 149-64.
  2. Proverbs 11:31 tn This construction is one of the “how much more” arguments—if this be true, how much more this (arguing from the lesser to the greater). The point is that if the righteous suffer for their sins, certainly the wicked will as well.
  3. Proverbs 11:31 tn Heb “the wicked and the sinner.” The two terms may form a hendiadys with the first functioning adjectivally: “the wicked sinner.”

17 (A)Do not let your heart be jealous of sinners,
But be zealous in the [a](B)fear of Yahweh [b]always.
18 Surely there is a [c](C)future,
And your (D)hope will not be cut off.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 23:17 Or reverence
  2. Proverbs 23:17 Lit all the day
  3. Proverbs 23:18 Lit latter end

17 Do not let your heart envy[a] sinners,
but rather be zealous in fearing the Lord[b] all the time.
18 For surely there is a future,[c]
and your hope will not be cut off.[d]

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 23:17 tn The verb in this line is אַל־יְקַנֵּא (ʾal yeqanneʾ), the Piel jussive negated. The verb means “to be jealous, to be zealous”; it describes passionate intensity for something. In English, if the object is illegitimate, it is called “envy”; if it is correct, it is called “zeal.” Here the warning is not to envy the sinners. The second colon could use the verb in the positive sense to mean “but rather let your passion burn for the fear of the Lord.”
  2. Proverbs 23:17 tn Heb “the fear of the Lord.” This expression features an objective genitive: “fearing the Lord.”
  3. Proverbs 23:18 tn Heb “end” (so KJV); ASV “a reward.”
  4. Proverbs 23:18 sn The saying is an understatement; far from being cut off, the “hope” will be realized in the end. So this saying, the thirteenth, advises people to be zealous for the fear of the Lord, their religion, rather than for anything that sinners have to offer.