Proverbs 24:13-14
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
13 My child, eat honey, for it is good,
and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste.(A)
14 Know that wisdom is such to your soul;
if you find it, you will find a future,
and your hope will not be cut off.(B)
Proverbs 24:13-14
New English Translation
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.
Footnotes
- 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.
- 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).
- Proverbs 24:14 tn The phrase “is sweet” is supplied in the translation as a clarification.
- Proverbs 24:14 tn The term “it” is supplied in the translation.
- 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).
Proverbs 24:16
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
16 for though they fall seven times, they will rise again,
but the wicked are overthrown by calamity.(A)
Proverbs 24:16
New English Translation
16 Indeed[a] a righteous person will fall[b] seven times, and then get up again,
but the guilty will collapse[c] in calamity.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 24:16 tn The clause beginning with כִּי (ki) could be interpreted as temporal, conditional, or emphatic. It may be viewed as concessive (“although”) but a concessive force would typically arise from its context and relationship to other independent clauses. In any case, the first half of the proverb assures that the righteous keep getting up and going again.sn The righteous may suffer adversity or misfortune any number of times—seven times here—but they will “rise” for virtue triumphs over evil in the end (R. N. Whybray, Proverbs [CBC], 140).
- Proverbs 24:16 tn The verb is a Hebrew imperfect of נָפַל (nafal) which should be understood as future “will fall” or modal “may fall.” If it is future, it is exemplary and not predictive of the number of times a righteous person will metaphorically fall down. It is followed by a vav plus perfect consecutive, which either continues the force of the preceding verb, or advances it one logical step, like the apodosis of a condition.
- Proverbs 24:16 tn The Niphal of כָּשַׁל (kashal; to stumble) is typically reflexive “to collapse.” Intransitive verbs do not tend to have passive meanings, but the Niphal may refer to the resulting state, “be collapsed, fallen, brought down,” (although some take the Niphal unusually as “caused to stagger”). The imperfect verb form could be taken as a general present, but the future presents a better parallel to the first half of the proverb.
Proverbs 24:20-22
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
20 for the evil have no future;
the lamp of the wicked will go out.(A)
21 My child, fear the Lord and the king,
and do not disobey either of them,[a](B)
22 for disaster comes from them suddenly,
and who knows the ruin that both can bring?
Footnotes
- 24.21 Gk: Heb do not associate with those who change
Proverbs 24:20-22
New English Translation
20 for the evil person has no future,[a]
and the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished.[b]
21 Fear the Lord, my child,[c] as well as the king,
and do not associate[d] with rebels,[e]
22 for suddenly their destruction will overtake them,[f]
and who knows the ruinous judgment both the Lord and the king can bring?[g]
Footnotes
- Proverbs 24:20 tn Heb “there is no end [i.e., future] for the evil.”
- Proverbs 24:20 sn The saying warns against envying the wicked; v. 19 provides the instruction, and v. 20 the motivation. The motivation is that there is no future hope for them—nothing to envy, or as C. H. Toy explains, there will be no good outcome for their lives (Proverbs [ICC], 449). They will die suddenly, as the implied comparison with the lamp being snuffed out signifies.
- Proverbs 24:21 tn Heb “my son,” but there is no indication in the immediate context that this should be limited only to male children.
- Proverbs 24:21 tn Heb “do not get mixed up with”; cf. TEV “Have nothing to do with”; NIV “do not join with.” The verb עָרַב (ʿarav) is used elsewhere meaning “to exchange; to take on pledge.” In the Hitpael stem it means “to have fellowship; to share; to associate with.” Some English versions (e.g., KJV) interpret as “to meddle” in this context, because “to have fellowship” is certainly not what is meant.
- Proverbs 24:21 tn The form rendered “rebels” is difficult; it appears to be the Qal active participle, plural, from שָׁנָה (shanah), “to change”—“those who change.” The RV might have thought of the idea of “change” when they rendered it “political agitators.” The Syriac and Tg. Prov 24:21 have “fools,” the Latin has “detractors,” and the LXX reads, “do not disobey either of them,” referring to God and the king in the first line. Accordingly the ruin predicted in the next line would be the ruin that God and the king can inflict. If the idea of “changers” is retained, it would have to mean people who at one time feared God and the king but no longer do.
- Proverbs 24:22 tn Heb “will rise” (so NASB).
- Proverbs 24:22 tn Heb “the ruin of the two of them.” Judgment is sent on the rebels both by God and the king. The term פִּיד (pid, “ruin; disaster”) is a metonymy of effect, the cause being the sentence of judgment (= “ruinous judgment” in the translation; cf. NLT “punishment”). The word “two of them” is a subjective genitive—they two bring the disaster on the rebels. The referents (the Lord and the king) have been specified in the translation for clarity.sn The reward for living in peace under God in this world is that those who do will escape the calamities that will fall on the rebellious. Verse 21a is used in 1 Peter 2:17, and v. 22 is used in Romans 13:1-7 (v. 4). This is the thirtieth and last of this collection.
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