The Right Word Needs the Right Setting

“Copied out” is a verb for moving something from one place to another, as mountains are removed in Job 9:5: the sayings were transferred into this collection. Hezekiah reigned roughly two and a half centuries after Solomon and led a revival of temple worship (2 Chronicles 29–31). The Talmud (Bava Batra 15a) credits “Hezekiah and his company” with writing out Proverbs.

The same noun, kavod, stands in both lines; the King James varies it as “glory” and “honour”. God’s glory is to hide a thing, the king’s glory to dig it out. Deuteronomy 29:29 draws the line elsewhere: “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us.”

A three-part comparison: the height of the sky, the depth of the earth, and the king’s heart, which has “no searching”, from the same root as “search out” in verse 2. The king whose honour is to investigate is himself beyond investigation. His subjects cannot measure him any more than the sky.

Silver ore came out of the ground mixed with lead and other metals, and the dross had to be skimmed off before a smith could work it. The Hebrew says a vessel comes out “for the refiner”, the tsoref, the craftsman. Isaiah 1:22 and 1:25 use the same picture for Jerusalem’s corrupt rulers: “Thy silver is become dross.”

The verse copies the grammar of verse 4 exactly: take away, and something comes forth. The wicked stand “before the king”, courtiers in his presence. 1 Kings 2 is an account of exactly this: Solomon removes Joab and Shimei, and the chapter ends, “the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.”

“Put not forth thyself” is literally “do not honour yourself”, from hadar, majesty: do not put on the grandeur yourself. “Stand not in the place of great men” means not taking up a position at court that belongs to someone of higher rank. The warning is about where a man chooses to stand.

Jesus turns this verse into a parable of wedding seats in Luke 14:8–10, where the host says “Friend, go up higher.” The last phrase, “whom thine eyes have seen”, sits awkwardly here; many modern translations move it to verse 8: “what thine eyes have seen, bring not hastily to court.”

“Strive” is riv, to take someone to law. The picture is of a man rushing to court over something he saw, only to be humiliated when the other side makes its case. “In the end thereof” asks what he will do when the case turns against him. The advice is to know the whole matter before going public.

Settle it with the neighbour himself, face to face. Jesus gives a similar order in Matthew 18:15, “go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.” The second line forbids winning the argument by betraying someone else’s confidence, bringing out a secret entrusted by a third person.

“Infamy” is dibbah, an evil report, the word for the spies’ “evil report” of the land in Numbers 13:32 and for the bad report Joseph brought of his brothers in Genesis 37:2. Once a man is known for leaking secrets, the reputation does not turn back. The one who hears it will make sure of that.

“Fitly” renders a word found only here, perhaps “in its right circumstances” or “on its wheels”, that is, at the right turn. The “apples of gold” may be golden fruit ornaments, and the “pictures of silver” are carved settings, filigree. The word is the same as the rich man’s “conceit” in 18:11: there an imagined carving, here a real one.

The “earring” is nezem, a ring for ear or nose, the kind given to Rebekah in Genesis 24:47. The image is exact: the reproof is jewellery, and the ear is where it is worn. It takes two to make the ornament, the one who reproves and the one who is willing to hear.

Snow falling at harvest would ruin the crop; 26:1 calls it out of place. Here the picture is more likely snow carried down from Lebanon or Hermon to cool drinks in the heat of harvest. “Refresheth the soul” is the phrase of Psalm 23:3, “He restoreth my soul.”

A “false gift” is a gift of lies, one promised and never delivered. The “clouds” are rising vapours, the sight a farmer longs for in a dry season. Jude 12 describes false teachers in the same terms, “clouds they are without water, carried about of winds”.

The “prince” is qatsin, a magistrate or commander, the word the elders use when they ask Jephthah to be their “captain” in Judges 11:6. The patience asked for here is the long temper of 15:18 and 16:32. Bone is the hardest thing in the body, and the softest thing, a tongue, breaks it.

Honey was often found in the open, as Samson found it in a lion’s carcass (Judges 14:8–9) and Jonathan found it dripping in a wood (1 Samuel 14:25–27). “So much as is sufficient” is the word dai, enough. The saying is about what to do with a windfall: eat, and stop.

“Withdraw thy foot” is literally “make thy foot rare”, from yaqar, rare and therefore precious. Visits that are rare stay valued. “Weary of thee” is the verb for being full, the same as “filled” in verse 16: the neighbour gets sick of you the way a man gets sick on honey.

Three weapons, each at a different range: the maul or war club at arm’s length, the sword in close combat, the arrow from a distance. The word for maul appears in Jeremiah 51:20 as God’s “battle axe”. A false witness strikes at every range, and his victim has no way to get out of reach.

A “broken tooth” is literally a crumbling one, and the “foot out of joint” is a foot that slips or wobbles. Both are parts of the body meant to take a load, biting and standing. Trusting an unfaithful man is putting weight on the one part that will give way.

“Nitre” is natron, a natural soda used as soap; Jeremiah 2:22 speaks of washing with it. Vinegar poured on it fizzes and spoils it. The captors of Psalm 137:3 demanded exactly this kind of cheer: “sing us one of the songs of Zion.” A merry song can be as cruel as taking a man’s coat in the cold.

Bread and water are the bare minimum of hospitality. Elisha does exactly this in 2 Kings 6:22–23: he has Israel’s king “set bread and water before” a captured Syrian army and send them home, and “the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.” The law already required helping an enemy’s stray ox (Exodus 23:4).

“Heap” is a verb used for raking up coals from a hearth, as in Isaiah 30:14. Some scholars point to an Egyptian penitential rite of carrying a pan of burning coals on the head as a sign of remorse, which would suit the reading of shame leading to repentance. The last line gives the one who feeds the enemy his own reward.

In Israel the rain came from the west, off the sea, and the north wind was usually dry, which is why the King James says it drives rain away; the Hebrew verb more naturally means to bring forth. There is also a pun: north is tsafon, from a root meaning hidden, and backbiting is literally “a tongue of secrecy”.

This repeats 21:9, now inside the collection copied by Hezekiah’s men. Several sayings appear in both the earlier Solomon collection and this one, which suggests the two were gathered from overlapping sources and kept separately before being placed in one book.

“Thirsty soul” is literally a weary soul, the phrase of Jeremiah 31:25, “I have satiated the weary soul.” News from a far country took weeks or months to arrive, if it came at all; when word came from Egypt that Joseph was alive, Jacob’s “spirit revived” (Genesis 45:27). The verse pairs with the faithful messenger of verse 13.

A “troubled fountain” is one muddied by trampling feet. Ezekiel 34:18 uses the same verb for sheep that drink the clear water and then “foul the residue with your feet”. A righteous man who gives way before the wicked is a spring that no one can drink from anymore; the source itself is spoiled.

Honey returns from verse 16. The second line is obscure in Hebrew and reads literally “and searching out their glory is glory”, which translators emend or bend in different directions. The words “search” and “glory” deliberately recall verse 2, so the chapter’s opening pair returns at its end.

“Rule” renders a word found only here, meaning restraint. The city is breached and has no walls, the state of Jerusalem in Nehemiah 1:3. The verse is the mirror of 16:32: there the man who rules his spirit is better than one who takes a city; here the man who cannot rule it is himself the city taken.