1A wise son—through a father’s reproof,
but a scoffer does not heed rebuke.
2From the fruit of a man’s mouth he eats goodly things,
but from the throat of traitors comes outrage.
3Who watches his mouth guards his own life,
who cracks open his lips knows disaster.
4He desires and has naught, the sluggard,
but the life of the diligent thrives.
5A lying word the righteous hates,
but the wicked is stinking and vile.
6Righteousness keeps the blameless,
but wickedness perverts the offender.
7One man feigns riches having nothing at all,
another plays poor, with great wealth.
8The ransom for a man’s life are his riches,
but the poor man will hear no rebuke.
9The light of the righteous shines,
but the lamp of the wicked gutters.
10The empty man in arrogance foments strife,
but with those who take counsel is wisdom.
11Wealth can be less than mere breath,
but who gathers bit by bit makes it grow.
12Drawn-out longing sickens the heart,
but desire come true is a tree of life.
13Who scorns a word will be hurt,
but who fears a command is rewarded.
14A wise man’s teaching is a wellspring of life,
to swerve from the snares of death.
15Good insight gives grace,
but the way of traitors is their ruin.
16Every shrewd man acts through knowledge,
but a dullard broadcasts folly.
17A wicked messenger falls into harm,
but a trusty envoy brings healing.
18Privation and disgrace for one spurning reproof,
but he who takes in rebuke will be honored.
19Desire fulfilled is sweet to the palate,
but fools’ loathing is swerving from evil.
20Who walks with the wise gets wisdom,
but who chases fools is crushed.
21Harm pursues offenders,
but the righteous are paid back with good.
22A good man bequeaths to the sons of his sons,
and stored for the righteous—the wealth of offenders.
23Much food from the furrows of the destitute,
and some are swept away without justice.
24Who spares his rod hates his son,
but who loves him seeks him out for reproof.
25The righteous man eats to satiety,
but the belly of the wicked will want.
CHAPTER 13 NOTES
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1. A wise son—through a father’s reproof. The Hebrew is still more gnomic, just four words without a verb or a preposition—literally, “wise son father’s reproof.”
2. throat. The parallelism with “mouth” in the first verset and the contrast between virtuous and vicious speech suggests that the multivalent nefesh here has the meaning of “throat.” The verb “comes” has been added to clarify the Hebrew, which has no verb, or the merely implied verb “is.”
3. who cracks open his lips knows disaster. Talking can get you into serious trouble, so the prudent man keeps his mouth shut.
4. thrives. More literally, “is luxuriant.”
6. the offender. Reading ḥataʾ for the Masoretic ḥataʾt, “offense.”
7. feigns riches . . . / plays poor. This proverb is less explicitly didactic than most of the others in the collection: it merely registers, as a warning not to be taken in by appearances, that in the economic realm some people are not what they seem to be.
8. the poor man will hear no rebuke. If the received text is correct, this would mean that whereas the rich man may have to call on his wealth to ransom himself from predators, no one bothers a poor man. Nevertheless, “rebuke,” geʿarah, is a little odd, and some emend it to geʾulah, “redemption,” yielding the sense that the poor man, when he is in a fix, has no resources with which to redeem himself.
9. shines. This translation reads yizrah,̣ “shines,” instead of the Masoretic yismah,̣ “rejoices,” because light rejoicing doesn’t make much sense. Others claim that yismaḥ has a secondary sense of “shine.”
10. empty man. With Fox, the translation revocalizes the Masoretic raq, “only,” to read reiq, “empty” or “worthless.”
11. Wealth can be less than mere breath. Wealth can be evanescent, vanishing overnight, but the person who assiduously gathers it bit by bit—presumably, without undertaking risky ventures with what he has accumulated—will see his resources steadily grow.
13. Who scorns a word. The clear implication is that this is a word of reproof.
15. is their ruin. The received text reads, oddly, ʾeytan, “is staunch [or strong].” The translation follows the Septuagint and the Syriac, which appear to have had ʾeydam, “their ruin,” in the Hebrew text from which they translated.
17. brings healing. The Hebrew says literally “is healing.”
19. to the palate. The Hebrew nefesh would be literally “throat,” or at least that is the meaning assumed here because of the verb yeʿerav, “is sweet.” But it could also mean “to the essential being.”
22. offenders. The Hebrew uses a singular noun.
23. Much food from the furrows of the destitute. This proverb is cryptic. Perhaps, like verse 7, it might be a worldly observation on the contradictory nature of reality: destitute people have fields from which an abundant yield could be extracted, but they can’t figure out how to do it; others are suddenly destroyed by disease or disaster for no good reason. The burden of this line sounds more like Qohelet than Proverbs. Fox emends the text to yield “the great devour the tillage of the poor.”
24. Who spares his rod hates his son. The Hebrew exhibits a pointed compactness, underscored by internal rhyme and assonance, that defies translation: ḥoseikh shivto soneiʾ beno.
25. to satiety. The literal sense of the Hebrew nafsho is “for the sating of his appetite [or gullet].”