1The proverbs of Solomon.
A wise son gladdens his father,
but a foolish son is his mother’s sorrow.
2The treasures of wickedness will not avail,
but righteousness saves from death.
3The LORD will not make the righteous man hunger,
but He rebuffs the desire of the wicked.
4A deceitful palm brings privation,
but the diligent hand enriches.
5A clever son stores up in the summer,
a disgraceful son slumbers at harvesttime.
6Blessings on the righteous man’s head,
but outrage will cover the mouth of the wicked.
7The memory of the righteous is for a blessing,
but the name of the wicked will rot.
8The wise of heart takes commands,
but who speaks stupidly comes to grief.
9Who walks in innocence walks secure,
but who walks crooked ways is exposed.
10Who winks with his eye gives pain,
and who speaks stupidly comes to grief.
11The righteous man’s mouth is a wellspring of life,
but outrage will cover the mouth of the wicked.
12Hatred foments strife,
but love covers up all misdeeds.
13On the discerning man’s lips wisdom is found,
but a rod for the back of the senseless!
14Wise men lay up knowledge,
but the dolt’s mouth is impending disaster.
15The rich man’s wealth is his fortress city,
the disaster of the poor, their privation.
16The effort of the righteous is for life,
the wicked’s yield is for offense.
17A path for life who observes reproof,
but who forsakes rebuke leads astray.
18Who covers up hatred has lying lips,
he who slanders is a fool.
19Through much talk misdeed will not cease,
but the shrewd man holds his tongue.
20Choice silver—a righteous man’s tongue,
but the heart of the wicked is worthless.
21The righteous man’s lips guide the many,
but dolts die for lack of sense.
22The LORD’s blessing will enrich,
and one increases no pain through it.
23As doing foul things is sport for the fool,
so is wisdom for the man of discernment.
24What the wicked dreads will come upon him,
and the desire of the righteous is granted.
25When the storm passes, the wicked is gone,
but the righteous is a lasting foundation.
26Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes,
thus the sluggard to those who send him.
27Fear of the LORD lengthens one’s days,
but the years of the wicked are short.
28The longing of the righteous is a joy,
but the hope of the wicked will perish.
29A stronghold for the blameless is the LORD’s way,
but disaster for the workers of crime.
30The righteous man never stumbles,
but the wicked will not dwell on earth.
31The mouth of the righteous puts forth wisdom,
but a perverse tongue will be cut off.
32The lips of the righteous will know to please,
and the mouth of the wicked—perverseness.
CHAPTER 10 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. The proverbs of Solomon. This is a headnote or title for the collection of sayings that runs from here to the end of chapter 23. As is true of the Late Biblical practice of ascription of texts to famous figures, it is by no means clear that the compiler was claiming actual authorship for King Solomon. The superscription might merely be saying that these proverbs are in the manner of Solomon, the legendary composer of many proverbs. Unlike chapters 1–9, which comprise extended poems, some of them taking up a whole chapter and some of them exhibiting narrative or quasidramatic elements, this collection consists of a miscellany of one-line proverbs, often with no connection from one line to the next. Much of the language is rather pat, consisting of neatly antithetical contrasts from the first verset to the second between the wise man and the fool, the righteous and the wicked, by and large cast in stereotypical terms. Much of this will require scant comment.
A wise son . . . / a foolish son. This initial proverb is a perfect illustration of the neatness of antithetical formulation: wise/foolish, father/mother, gladdens/sorrow.
2. righteousness saves from death. This verset would come to be chanted in Jewish funeral processions, though the meaning of tsedaqah, “righteousness,” had shifted to “charity,” which mourners were invited to offer.
3. desire. The Hebrew hawah, elsewhere “disaster,” is here either an equivalent of or a mistake for ʾawah, “desire.”
5. A clever son stores up in the summer. As we have seen elsewhere—most notably, in the observation of the ant in 6:6–8—diligence as well as honesty or probity is seen as a cardinal virtue in Proverbs.
6. the mouth of the wicked. Some emend “mouth,” pi, to “face,” peney.
8. who speaks stupidly. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “the stupid of lips.”
9. who walks crooked ways. Literally, “who makes his ways crooked.”
is exposed. Literally, “is known.”
10. winks with his eye. The reference is to either a lascivious gesture or a merely grotesque one. According to Fox, it is an expression of hostility.
14. the dolt’s mouth is impending disaster. This is the case because, by saying stupid things, he brings disaster down on himself and perhaps on those around him as well.
15. The rich man’s . . . / the poor. This verse illustrates how the conventionality of wisdom in these proverbs tumbles into truism since what is said here, after all, is that the rich man can depend on his wealth for security whereas the poor man’s poverty makes him miserable.
18. has lying lips. The Hebrew merely implies “has.”
19. holds his tongue. More literally, “holds his lips.”
22. one increases no pain. Many interpreters understand the Hebrew noun ʿetsev to mean “toil” or “labor” because in Genesis 3:17 this word is linked with the pain of working the soil, but ʿetsev everywhere else means “pain” or “pang.” This translation therefore understands it not to mean “no toil will increase it [the LORD’s blessing]” but that through the LORD’s blessing one is painlessly enriched.
25. When the storm passes. This is a bedrock assumption of Proverbs—vehemently contested by Job—that adversity sweeps away the wicked while the righteous endure. A different formulation of the same idea occurs in verse 27.
26. Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes. This verse exhibits a different, and more interesting, pattern from the neat antithetical parallelism that governs almost all the lines up to this point: the first verset lays out a simile and the second verset reveals the referent of the simile. This looks rather like a riddle form: what is it that is like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, discoloring the former and making the latter smart? The answer to the riddle is: a fool sent on an errand, who is bound to exasperate whoever has sent him.
29. for the blameless. The translation, following the precedent of several of the ancient versions, revocalizes the Masoretic latom, “for blamelessness,” as latam, “for the blameless.” This small change yields an otherwise missing parallelism: the LORD’s way is a stronghold for the blameless but sheer terror for the wicked.
32. to please, / . . . perverseness. The antithetical parallelism here provides a clue to one of the connotations of tahapukhot, “perverseness,” in Proverbs. It involves not only acting or speaking in a wrongheaded or contorted way but disconcerting or dismaying others through such behavior, in contrast to the righteous man, whose speech has the capacity to please others and win their goodwill.