The Clean Stall and the Troubled Heart

“Every wise woman” is chakhmot nashim, and chakhmot is the same form as “Wisdom” in 9:1, “Wisdom hath builded her house”. The line can be read “the wisest of women” or even “Wisdom among women”, so the ideal and the ordinary household blur. The hands recall the capable wife who “worketh willingly with her hands” (31:13).

The verse says conduct reveals what a man thinks of God: walking straight is a way of fearing him, walking crooked is a way of despising him. “Perverse” is naloz, devious (2:15). God says in 1 Samuel 2:30, “they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.”

“Rod” is choter, a shoot or twig, the word of Isaiah 11:1, “there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse”. Pride sprouts from the fool’s mouth like a sucker from a stump, or becomes a switch that lands on his own back. The wise are kept safe by their lips.

“Crib” is evus, a feeding trough, the word of Isaiah 1:3, “the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib”. The Greek of that verse uses phatne, the word Luke 2:7 uses for the manger. An empty trough is clean; a working ox makes a mess and a harvest.

“Faithful witness” is ed emunim, the phrase Jeremiah’s hearers use in calling on the LORD as “a true and faithful witness” (Jeremiah 42:5). The Law’s penalty for a false witness was to suffer what he meant his victim to suffer (Deuteronomy 19:19).

Seeking and not finding is the fate Wisdom announced in 1:28: “they shall seek me … but they shall not find me.” The scorner looks for wisdom without the humility that lets it in. “Easy” is naqal, a light thing, the phrase of 2 Kings 3:18, “this is but a light thing”.

A single command with no contrasting half, unusual in a chapter of paired sayings. The Hebrew of the second clause is compressed, literally “and you will not have known lips of knowledge”: stay near him and you will learn nothing. “From the presence” is literally “from in front of”.

“Understand his way” is havin darko, to discern one’s own road. “Deceit” is mirmah; the fool’s folly deceives, and the one most deceived may be the fool himself. Obadiah 3 has the same turn: “The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee.”

“Sin” here is asham, the word for the guilt offering of Leviticus 5, so the line may mean fools mock at making amends. “Favour” is ratson, acceptance, the word Leviticus uses for an offering the LORD accepts (Leviticus 1:3). The vocabulary is borrowed from the altar.

“His own bitterness” is marrat nafsho, bitterness of soul, the phrase used of Hannah praying at Shiloh (1 Samuel 1:10), when Eli watched her lips and took her for drunk. “Intermeddle” is yit’arav, to mix in or share, from arav, the verb of going surety in 6:1.

The wicked have a bayit, a house, and the upright only an ohel, a tent, yet the solid house falls and the tent flourishes. “Flourish” is yafriach, to bud or blossom, the verb for Aaron’s rod, which “brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms” (Numbers 17:8).

The verse appears again, word for word, at 16:25. “The end thereof” is acharit, the aftermath of 5:4. “The ways of death” is plural: one road that seems right opens out into many roads, and all of them end in the same place.

“Laughter” is sechoq, the play of 8:30 and 10:23. “Heaviness” is tugah, the grief of the mother of a foolish son in 10:1. Ecclesiastes 7:6 compares a fool’s laughter to “the crackling of thorns under a pot”, loud, bright and quickly gone.

“Backslider in heart” is sug lev, one whose heart moves back, the verb of Psalm 44:18, “Our heart is not turned back”. “Filled with his own ways” recalls 1:31, “filled with their own devices”. The good man is satisfied “from himself”, or, with a small change, “from his deeds”.

“Believeth” is ya’amin, the verb of Genesis 15:6, “he believed in the LORD”. Belief is praised or mocked here according to its object. “Looketh well to his going” is yavin la’ashuro, he considers his step, from ashar, the stepping forward of 4:14.

Fearing and departing from evil is the pair of 3:7, and of Job’s introduction. “Rageth” is mit’abber, to become overbearing, from evrah, fury, a word also used of crossing a boundary. “Confident” is boteach, trusting; 28:26 says what in: “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.”

“Soon angry” is qetsar appayim, literally “short of nostrils”. Hebrew pictures anger as af, the nose, flaring and reddening; to be slow to anger is to have a long nose, erekh appayim, as verse 29 says. The Greek reads the second half differently: a man of discretion bears up.

“Inherit” is nachalu, receive as a family portion, folly handed down like land. “Crowned” is yakhtiru, to surround or encircle, from which comes keter, the royal crown of Esther 1:11. The prudent are ringed about with knowledge as a king’s head is ringed with gold.

“Bow” is shachu, to stoop low, the posture of Joseph’s brothers before him in Egypt (Genesis 42:6). Waiting “at the gates” of the righteous is the picture of 1 Samuel 2:36, where Eli’s descendants “crouch to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread”.

“Hated” in Hebrew can mean simply loved less or left aside, as Leah was “hated” beside Rachel (Genesis 29:31). 19:4 and 19:7 come back to the fact twice: “all the brethren of the poor do hate him: how much more do his friends go far from him?”

“Hath mercy” is mechonen, shows grace, from chanan, the root of “gracious” in Psalm 145:8. The second half begins a beatitude like Psalm 41:1, “Blessed is he that considereth the poor.” The written Hebrew says “the poor”; the scribes read “the humble”.

“Devise” is charash, plough, and for the first time in the book the ploughing verb is used of good: some plough evil, others plough good. “Err” is ta’ah, to wander off (7:25). “Mercy and truth” is chesed ve’emet, the pair bound about the neck in 3:3.

“Labour” is etsev, painful toil, the word of 10:22. “The talk of the lips” is devar sefatayim, the phrase the Assyrian envoy threw at Hezekiah: “thou sayest, (but they are but vain words,) I have counsel and strength for the war” (2 Kings 18:20). Talk is cheap in both places.

The Greek translation reads “the crown of the wise is their prudence”, from a very similar word. The second half is a tautology in Hebrew, “the folly of fools is folly”; some change one letter to read “the garland of fools is folly”, a mock crown to match the real one.

“Delivereth souls” means saving lives in court, where a capital charge hung on testimony. Naboth was stoned on the word of two hired witnesses, “men of Belial” (1 Kings 21:13). “Deceitful witness” is mirmah, deceit, the same word as in verse 8.

“Strong confidence” is mivtach oz, a fortress of trust. “His children” may be the children of the man who fears the LORD or the LORD’s own children; the Hebrew allows both. “Place of refuge” is machseh, the word of Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength”.

The verse repeats 13:14 with one substitution: “the fear of the LORD” where 13:14 had “the law of the wise”. The book treats them as interchangeable sources. Jeremiah 2:13 has God call himself “the fountain of living waters”, forsaken for cracked cisterns.

“Prince” is razon, a rare poetic word for a ruler, found also in Judges 5:3. The reign of Solomon is described in just these terms: “Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking, and making merry” (1 Kings 4:20).

“Slow to wrath” is erekh appayim, long of nose, the phrase of Exodus 34:6 and Psalm 145:8 describing God himself. “Hasty of spirit” is qetsar ruach, short of breath, the phrase of Exodus 6:9, where Israel could not listen to Moses “for anguish of spirit”.

“Sound heart” is lev marpe, which can mean a healing heart or a calm one, since marpe also carries the sense of relaxing; Ecclesiastes 10:4 says “yielding pacifieth great offences”, using the same word. “Rottenness” is raqav, the decay in the bones of 12:4.

“Maker” is oseh, the one who made him. Job argues the same way about his servants: “Did not he that made me in the womb make him?” (Job 31:15). 22:2 says it outright: “The rich and poor meet together: the LORD is the maker of them all.” 17:5 repeats the first half.

“Driven away” is yiddacheh, thrust down, from nadach (7:21). “Hath hope in his death” is chaseh bemoto, takes refuge in his death. The Greek reads bethummo, “in his integrity”, the same letters in a different order, so the righteous man trusts in his own uprightness.

“Resteth” is tanuach, settles quietly, the verb for the ark coming to rest on Ararat (Genesis 8:4). In the second half the Greek and Syriac read “is not known”, a negative the Hebrew lacks: wisdom does not show itself among fools. The Hebrew says what is inside a fool always comes out.

“Reproach” is chesed, the ordinary word for loyal love, used here in a rare second sense of shame or disgrace, as in Leviticus 20:17, “it is a wicked thing”. “Nation” is goy, the word often used of peoples other than Israel, so the rule applies to any people.

“A wise servant” is eved maskil, the one who acts with insight, the word for David who “behaved himself wisely” in Saul’s service (1 Samuel 18:14). Pharaoh set Joseph over Egypt for this very quality (Genesis 41:38–40). “Causeth shame” is mevish, the shaming son of 10:5.