1Wisdom has built her house,
and Folly with her own hands destroys it.
2Who walks in uprightness fears the LORD,
and he of twisted ways does despise Him.
3In the mouth of the dolt is a rod of pride,
but the lips of the wise will guard them.
4Without any oxen the manger is clean,
but there is much yield in the bull’s strength.
5A trustworthy witness does not lie,
but the lying deposer is a false witness.
6The scoffer seeks wisdom in vain,
but knowledge for the discerning is easy.
7Go before a foolish man,
you will not learn from him knowing speech.
8The shrewd man’s wisdom is to understand his own way,
but the folly of dullards deceives them.
9Guilt dwells in the tents of scoffers,
but among the upright—favor.
10The heart knows its own bitterness,
and in its joy no stranger mingles.
11The house of the wicked will be destroyed,
and the tent of the upright will flourish.
12There may be a straight way before a man,
but its end is the ways of death.
13Even in laughter the heart may ache,
14From his ways the impure of heart is sated,
and the good man from his deeds.
15A dupe will believe everything,
but the shrewd man understands where he steps.
16A wise man is cautious and swerves from evil,
but a fool rages and trusts too much.
17A short-tempered man commits folly,
but a cunning man will be raised high.
18Dupes will inherit folly,
but the shrewd wear a crown of knowledge.
19The evil bow before the good,
and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.
20The poor man is hated even by his neighbor,
but the rich man has many who love him.
21Who scorns his neighbor offends,
but happy he who pities the poor.
22Surely those who plan evil do stray,
but steadfast kindness for those who plan good.
23In all hard labor there is profit,
but word of the lips is sheer loss.
24The crown of the wise is shrewdness;
the garland of dullards is folly.
25A true witness saves lives,
a lying deposer fosters deceit.
26In fear of the LORD there is a stronghold,
and for one’s sons it is a shelter.
27Fear of the LORD is a wellspring of life,
to swerve from the snares of death.
28In the people’s multitude is the king’s glory,
but when the nation is absent—the ruler’s disaster.
29Patience means great discernment,
but impatience multiplies folly.
30A healing heart is life to the body,
but envy is rot in the bones.
31Who oppresses the poor insults his Maker,
but he honors Him who pities the wretched.
32In his evil the wicked is driven off,
but the righteous finds shelter in his innocence.
33In a discerning heart wisdom rests
but is not known in the midst of fools.
34Righteousness raises a nation,
but offense leads to want among peoples.
35A king’s pleasure is a discerning servant,
but his wrath is the shameful man.
CHAPTER 14 NOTES
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1. Wisdom has built her house. This verset is identical with the first verset of 9:1, except that here the Masoretic Text adds nashim, “women” or “of women,” after “Wisdom.” That word looks suspect as idiomatic usage, and one may concur in the proposal of R. B. Y. Scott that it is a scribal gloss. Accordingly, it is omitted in the translation. In any case, the momentary appearance in this section of Proverbs of the allegorical apparatus from the preceding (but presumably later) section, chapters 1–9, is anomalous.
3. the mouth of the dolt . . . / the lips of the wise. The contrast is between arrogantly aggressive speech (the “rod of pride”) and prudent, self-protective speech.
4. Without any oxen the manger is clean. This entire line has the ring of a canny folk saying: your manger may remain clean when you have no oxen to feed, but it is the strength of the ox, however he dirties manger and barn, that enables you to reap a harvest.
5. A trustworthy witness . . . / the lying deposer. This is one of those proverbs that verge on tautology.
7. knowing speech. Literally, “lips of knowledge.”
8. the folly of dullards deceives them. Literally, “the folly of dullards is deceit.” Given the antithetical parallelism with the first verset, this has to mean not that they are deceitful but that they deceive themselves.
9. Guilt dwells in the tents of scoffers. The received text looks defective here. It reads, literally, “dolts scoffs [sic] [or “intercedes”] guilt,” ʾewilim yelits ʾasham. Taking a hint from the Septuagint, this translation instead reads beʾohaley letsim yalin ʾasham.
10. The heart knows its own bitterness. In the midst of didactic platitudes, we suddenly get an arresting aphorism about the incommensurability of each person’s private experience.
12. its end is the ways of death. The repetition of “way” from the first verset is a little awkward. That effect might be at least mitigated if one adopted Tur-Sinai’s proposed emendation of ʾaḥarit to ʾorḥotaw, yielding “its paths are the ways to death.”
13. the end of. The Masoretic Text has “its end.”
14. ways . . . / deeds. It doesn’t seem that an opposition is expressed. We are left with the rather bland statement that both the evil man and the good man live with the consequences of what they do.
17. will be raised high. The Masoretic Text reads yisaneiʾ, “will be hated,” which is questionable. This translation reads, with the Septuagint, yinaseiʾ, “will be lifted up” or “will be raised high,” a simple transposition of consonants.
19. at the gates of the righteous. That is, they court them, bow down to them at the entrance of their homes.
24. shrewdness. The received text reads ʿoshram, “their wealth,” an improbable candidate as the crown of the wise. The Septuagint, more plausibly, has ʿormah, “shrewdness.”
the garland. The received text reads “The folly of dullards is folly.” Instead of this tautology, this translation, following many critics, reads liwyat, “garland of,” instead of ʾiwelet, “folly.”
25. fosters deceit. The verb—there is none in the Hebrew—is added for clarification.
28. ruler’s. The translation reads rozen for the Masoretic razon, “famine.”
29. multiplies. The received text has “lifts up,” merim, but three ancient versions show marbeh, “multiplies.”
30. A healing heart. Presumably, the heart is healing because it feels something like equanimity, in contrast to the corrosive envy in the antithetical second verset.
32. the righteous finds shelter in his innocence. The Masoretic Text says “in his death,” bemoto, which is problematic theologically and perhaps grammatically as well. The translation follows the Septuagint and the Syriac, which read betumo, “in his innocence,” which is a simple transposition of consonants and thus an error a scribe could easily make, possibly induced by the motive of later piety.
33. but is not known. The Masoretic Text lacks the “not,” but this is surely a scribal error because it is hard to imagine that there would be a declaration in Proverbs that wisdom is known in the midst of fools.
34. want. Following scholarly consensus and the Septuagint, this translation replaces the Masoretic ḥesed, “kindness,” with ḥeser, “want.” The difference between the Hebrew graphemes for d and r is quite small. The phrase “leads to” has been added in the translation for clarification of the Hebrew, which has no verb.