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Proverbs 24:28
New English Translation
Proverbs 24:28
New English Translation
28 Do not be a witness against your neighbor without cause,[a]
and do not deceive with your words.[b]
Footnotes
- Proverbs 24:28 sn The legal setting of these sayings continues with this warning against being a false accuser. The “witness” in this line is one who has no basis for his testimony. “Without cause” is the adverb from חָנָן (khanan), which means “to be gracious.” The adverb means “without a cause; gratis; free.” It is also cognate to the word חֵן (khen), “grace” or “unmerited [or, undeserved] favor.” The connotation is that the opposite is due. So the adverb would mean that there was no cause, no justification for the witness, but that the evidence seemed to lie on the other side.
- Proverbs 24:28 tn Heb “lips.” The term “lips” is a metonymy of cause; it means “what is said.” Here it refers to what is said in court as a false witness.
Proverbs 24:28
New Living Translation
Proverbs 24:28
New Living Translation
28 Don’t testify against your neighbors without cause;
don’t lie about them.
Proverbs 28:6
New English Translation
Proverbs 28:6
New English Translation
6 A poor person[a] who walks in his integrity is better
than one who is perverse in his ways[b] even though[c] he is rich.[d]
Footnotes
- Proverbs 28:6 sn This chapter gives a lot of attention to the contrast between the poor and the rich, assuming an integrity for the poor that is not present with the rich; the subject is addressed in vv. 6, 8, 11, 20, 22, 25, and 27 (G. A. Chutter, “Riches and Poverty in the Book of Proverbs,” Crux 18 [1982]: 23-28).
- Proverbs 28:6 tn The Hebrew term translated “ways” is in the dual, suggesting that the person has double ways, i.e., he is hypocritical. C. H. Toy does not like this idea and changes the form to the plural (Proverbs [ICC], 497), but his emendation is gratuitous and should be rejected.
- Proverbs 28:6 tn Heb “and he is rich.” Many English versions treat this as a concessive clause (cf. KJV “though he be rich”).
- Proverbs 28:6 sn This is another “better” saying, contrasting a poor person who has integrity with a rich person who is perverse. Of course there are rich people with integrity and perverse poor people, but that is not of interest here. If it came to the choices described here, honest poverty is better than corrupt wealth.
Proverbs 28:6
New Living Translation
Proverbs 28:6
New Living Translation
6 Better to be poor and honest
than to be dishonest and rich.
Proverbs 28:13
New English Translation
Proverbs 28:13
New English Translation
13 The one who covers[a] his transgressions will not prosper,[b]
but whoever confesses them and forsakes them will find mercy.[c]
Footnotes
- Proverbs 28:13 tn The Hebrew participles provide the subject matter in this contrast. On the one hand is the person who covers over (מְכַסֶּה, mekhasseh) his sins. This means refusing to acknowledge them in confession, and perhaps rationalizing them away. On the other hand there is the one who both “confesses” (מוֹדֶה, modeh) and “forsakes” (עֹזֵב, ʿozev) the sin. To “confess” sins means to acknowledge them, to say the same thing about them that God does.
- Proverbs 28:13 sn The verse contrasts the consequences of each. The person who refuses to confess will not prosper. This is an understatement (a figure of speech known as tapeinosis); the opposite is the truth, that eventually such a person will be undone and ruined. On the other hand, the penitent will find mercy. This expression is a metonymy of cause for the effect—although “mercy” is mentioned, what mercy provides is intended, i.e., forgiveness. In other passages the verb “conceal” is used of God’s forgiveness—he covers over the iniquity (Ps 32:1). Whoever acknowledges sin, God will cover it; whoever covers it, God will lay it open.
- Proverbs 28:13 sn This verse is unique in the book of Proverbs; it captures the theology of forgiveness (e.g., Pss 32; 51). Every part of the passage is essential to the point: Confession of sins as opposed to concealing them, coupled with a turning away from them, results in mercy.
Proverbs 28:13
New Living Translation
Proverbs 28:13
New Living Translation
13 People who conceal their sins will not prosper,
but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.
Proverbs 28:23
New English Translation
Proverbs 28:23
New English Translation
23 The one who reproves[a] another[b] will in the end[c] find more favor
than the one who flatters[d] with the tongue.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 28:23 tn Or “rebukes” (NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
- Proverbs 28:23 tn Heb “a man,” but the context does not indicate this should be limited only to males.
- Proverbs 28:23 tn There is a problem with אַחֲרַי (ʾakharay), which in the MT reads “after me.” This could be taken to mean “after my instructions,” but that is forced. C. H. Toy suggests simply changing it to “after” or “afterward,” i.e., “in the end” (Proverbs [ICC], 504), a solution most English versions adopt. G. R. Driver suggested an Akkadian cognate aḫurrû, “common man,” reading “as a rebuker an ordinary man” (“Hebrew Notes,” ZAW 52 [1934]: 147). The Akkadian term can refer to a coarse, uneducated person (CAD A1: 216), if so here, then “one who rebukes a lout/oaf.”
- Proverbs 28:23 tn The construction uses the Hiphil participle מַחֲלִיק (makhaliq, “makes smooth”) followed by the adverbial accusative of means, the metonymy “tongue”—he makes what he says smooth. This will be pleasing for the moment, but it will offer no constructive help like the rebuke would.
Proverbs 28:23
New Living Translation
Proverbs 28:23
New Living Translation
23 In the end, people appreciate honest criticism
far more than flattery.
New English Translation (NET)
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New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.