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22 Listen to your father who gave you life,
and do not despise your mother when she is old.
23 Acquire[a] truth and do not sell it—
wisdom, and discipline, and understanding.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 23:23 tn Heb “buy” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NLT); CEV “Invest in truth.”sn The sixteenth saying is an instruction to buy/acquire the kind of life that pleases God and brings joy to parents. “Getting truth” would mean getting training in the truth, and getting wisdom and understanding would mean developing the perception and practical knowledge of the truth.

22 Listen to your father, who gave you life;
    don’t despise your elderly mother.
23 Buy truth and don’t sell it;
    buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.

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13 Eat honey,[a] my child, for it is good,
and honey from the honeycomb is sweet to your taste.
14 Likewise, know[b] that wisdom is sweet[c] to your soul;
if you have found it,[d] you have a future,[e]
and your hope will not be cut off.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 24:13 sn The twenty-sixth saying teaches that one should develop wisdom because it has a profitable future. The saying draws on the image of honey; its health-giving properties make a good analogy to wisdom.
  2. Proverbs 24:14 tn D. W. Thomas argues for a meaning of “seek” in place of “know” (“Notes on Some Passages in the Book of Proverbs,” JTS 38 [1937]: 400-403).
  3. Proverbs 24:14 tn The phrase “is sweet” is supplied in the translation as a clarification.
  4. Proverbs 24:14 tn The term “it” is supplied in the translation.
  5. Proverbs 24:14 tn Heb “there will be an אַחֲרִית (ʾakharit), which means “end, result, following period.” It suggests a future, which may imply posterity. It is sometimes connected with hope (Jer 29:11: 31:17; Prov 23:18).

13 My child, eat honey, for it is good.
    The honeycomb is sweet in your mouth.
14 Know that wisdom is like that for your whole being.
    If you find it, there is a future.
    Your hope won’t be cut off.

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Evil people[a] do not understand justice,[b]
but those who seek the Lord[c] understand it all.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 28:5 tn Heb “men of evil”; the context does not limit this to males only, however.
  2. Proverbs 28:5 tn The term translated “justice” is מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat); it refers to the legal rights of people, decisions that are equitable in the community. W. G. Plaut observes that there are always those who think that “justice” is that which benefits them, otherwise it is not justice (Proverbs, 282).
  3. Proverbs 28:5 sn The contrast (and the difference) is between the wicked and those who seek the Lord. Originally the idea of seeking the Lord meant to obtain an oracle (2 Sam 21:1), but then it came to mean devotion to God—seeking to learn and do his will. Only people who are interested in doing the Lord’s will can fully understand justice. Without that standard, legal activity can become self-serving.

Evil people don’t understand justice,
    but those who seek the Lord understand everything.

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15 A rod and reproof[a] impart[b] wisdom,
but a child who is unrestrained[c] brings shame to[d] his mother.[e]

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 29:15 tn The word “rod” is a metonymy of cause, in which the instrument being used to discipline is mentioned in place of the process of disciplining someone. So the expression refers to the process of discipline that is designed to correct someone. Some understand the words “rod and reproof” to form a hendiadys, meaning “a correcting [or, reproving] rod” (cf. NAB, NIV “the rod of correction”).
  2. Proverbs 29:15 tn Heb “gives” (so NAB).
  3. Proverbs 29:15 tn The form is a Pual participle; the form means “to let loose” (from the meaning “to send”; cf. KJV, NIV “left to himself”), and so in this context “unrestrained.”
  4. Proverbs 29:15 sn The Hebrew participle translated “brings shame” is a metonymy of effect; the cause is the unruly and foolish things that an unrestrained child will do.
  5. Proverbs 29:15 sn The focus on the mother is probably a rhetorical variation for the “parent” (e.g., 17:21; 23:24-25) and is not meant to assume that only the mother will do the training and endure the shame for a case like this (e.g., 13:24; 23:13).

15 The rod and correction lead to wisdom,
    but children out of control shame their mothers.

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