CHAPTER 19
1Better a poor man walking in his innocence,
than a man twisted in speech who is a fool.
2It is surely not good to lack knowledge,
and who hurries with his feet offends.
3A man’s folly perverts his way,
and his heart rages against the LORD.
4Wealth will give one many friends,
but the poor is parted from his friend.
5A false witness will not go scot-free,
and a lying deposer will not escape.
6Many court the favor of a nobleman,
and all are friends to a man with gifts.
7All a poor man’s brothers despise him,
even more, his friends draw back from him.
[They are not pursuers of sayings.]
8Who acquires good sense cares for himself,
who guards discernment will find good.
9A false witness will not go scot-free,
and a lying deposer will perish.
10Unfit for the fool is pleasure,
even more, for a slave to rule princes.
11A man’s insight gives him patience,
and his glory, to overlook a fault.
12A roar like a lion’s, the wrath of a king,
but like dew on the grass his favor.
13Disaster to his father, a foolish son,
and a maddening drip, a nagging wife.
14House and wealth are deeded by parents,
but a clever wife is from the LORD.
15Sloth induces slumber,
and a shiftless person will go hungry.
16Who keeps a command keeps his own life,
who scorns his own ways will die.
17Who pities the poor makes a loan to the LORD,
and his reward He will pay back to him.
18Reprove your son while there is hope,
and to his moaning pay no heed.
19A very hotheaded man bears punishment,
try to save him—you will make things worse.
20Heed counsel and take reproof,
that you get wisdom in the end.
21Many are the plans in the heart of a man,
but it’s the LORD’s counsel that is fulfilled.
22A man’s desire is his own lack,
and better a poor man than a liar.
23Fear of the LORD is for life,
and one rests sated, untouched by harm.
24The sluggard hides his hand in the dish,
he won’t even bring it up to his mouth.
25Beat the scoffer and the dupe becomes shrewd,
rebuke the discerning and he gains knowledge.
26Despoiling a father,
putting a mother to flight, is the shaming disgraceful son.
27A son ceases to heed reproof,
28A worthless witness scoffs justice,
and the mouth of the wicked swallows crime.
29Retribution is readied for scoffers,
and blows for the backs of fools.
CHAPTER 19 NOTES
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1. walking in his innocence, / . . . twisted in speech. Walking in innocence suggests the recurrent image of walking on a straight way and so becomes a neat antithesis of twisted speech.
a fool. A few manuscripts read instead “rich.”
2. It is surely not good. The Hebrew wording is cryptic.
4. Wealth will give one many friends. This whole line is one of the instances in which Proverbs offers not moral instruction but a disenchanted observation (like Qohelet) about the way things are: people flock around the rich and avoid the poor. Verse 6 makes essentially the same point.
7. They are not pursuers of sayings. The translation reflects the opaque wording of the Hebrew. The verset is textually suspect and may not belong at all because there are no triadic lines elsewhere in this whole section of Proverbs—hence the brackets here.
10. Unfit for the fool is pleasure. A wise person knows how to manage pleasure judiciously, but a fool will choose harmful pleasures or pursue pleasure to excess. This predisposition for the aristocracy of wisdom goes hand in glove with the affirmation of social hierarchy in the second verset.
12. A roar like a lion’s . . . / dew on the grass. The contrast between the king’s wrath and his favorable disposition is effectively highlighted by the move from the simile of the carnivore roaring before it tears apart its prey to the gentle descent of dew on grass.
13. maddening. The literal sense of the Hebrew tored is “driving away.”
a nagging wife. The literal sense is “quarrels of a wife,” but the context amply justifies this translation.
14. a clever wife. Though this phrase could also be construed as “a clever woman,” the proverb suggests that a man may depend on his parents for the inheritance of wealth and house, but God alone can grant him the gift (or good luck) of a clever wife.
19. A very hotheaded man. The translation follows the Masoretic marginal correction, gedol, instead of the unintelligible gerol of the consonantal text.
try to save him. This is another instance in which each Hebrew word of the received text is comprehensible but they make little sense together, so the translation is conjectural. A very literal rendering would be “but if you save and you still would add.”
21. Many are the plans in the heart of a man. This proverb is manifestly a Hebrew equivalent of “man proposes and God disposes.”
22. his own lack. The Masoretic Text reads “his own kindness” (ḥesed). The translation adopts an emendation proposed by Tur-Sinai, ḥeser, “lack,” mindful that there are many scribal confusions between the letter resh and the similar-looking dalet.
23. one rests sated, untouched by harm. Again, the Hebrew is rather cryptic and the translation an interpretive guess.
24. hides his hand in the dish. In this proverb, one sees a satiric, and hyperbolic, relation between the first verset and the second. The reader initially wonders why the sluggard hides his hand—or, literally, “buries it”—in the dish, and then discovers that he’s too lazy to lift it up to his mouth. The hyperbole in this way conveys the reiterated point that a lazy person fails to provide for his own basic needs.
25. Beat the scoffer . . . / rebuke the discerning. This proverb is a variation on the idea expressed in 17:10—a whipping may beat sense into a fool, but a word of rebuke suffices for the wise.
27. A son ceases. The translation adopts the Septuagint here, reading ḥadel ben instead of the Masoretic ḥadal beni, “cease, my son.”
murmuring evil sayings. The received text reads lishgot meʾimrey daʿat, “to dote from [?] sayings of knowledge.” The translation follows the Septuagint, which seems to have read in the Hebrew lahagot maʾamarim raʿim.
29. Retribution. Thus the Masoretic Text. Many scholars prefer to emend shefatim to she-vatim, “rods,” which is to say, “blows.”