CHAPTER 29

                ¹A man often rebuked who is stiff-necked,

                    will be suddenly broken beyond healing.

                ²When the righteous are many, a people rejoices,

                    but when the wicked man rules, a people groans.

                ³A man who loves wisdom will gladden his father,

                    but a chaser of whores will destroy wealth.

                ⁴A king makes a land stand firm through justice,

                    but a deceitful man destroys it.

                ⁵A man who flatters his fellow

                    spreads a net at his feet.

                ⁶In an evil man’s crime is a snare,

                    but the righteous is glad and rejoices.

                ⁷The righteous man knows the cause of the poor.

                    The wicked man does not grasp knowledge.

                ⁸Scoffing men fan the flames of a city,

                    but the wise will turn back wrath.

                ⁹When a wise man contends with a doltish man,

                    the dolt rages and mocks, with no calm.

                ¹⁰Bloody men hate the innocent,

                    but the upright look out for his life.

                ¹¹The fool gives vent to his whole spirit,

                    but the wise man quells it.

                ¹²A ruler heeding a lying word—

                    all his servants are wicked.

                ¹³A pauper and a schemer meet—

                    the LORD gives light to the eyes of both.

                ¹⁴A king who judges the poor with honesty,

                    his throne will stand firm for all time.

                ¹⁵Rod and rebuke impart wisdom,

                    but a lad run loose shames his mother.

                ¹⁶When the wicked increase, crime increases,

                    but the righteous will witness their downfall.

                ¹⁷Reprove your son and he will give you ease,

                    and offer delicacies for your palate.

                ¹⁸Without vision a people turns wild,

                    but happy is he who follows the teaching.

                ¹⁹Through words a slave will not accept reproof,

                    though he understand, there will be no answer.

                ²⁰Have you seen a man hasty in his words?

                    There is more hope for the dolt than for him.

                ²¹Who pampers his slave from youth,

                    in the end there will be dismay.

                ²²An angry man stirs up strife,

                    and a hothead abounds in crime.

                ²³A man’s pride will bring him low,

                    but the lowly of spirit will hold on to honor.

                ²⁴Who shares with a thief hates himself,

                    he will hear the curse and will not tell.

                ²⁵A man’s fear becomes a snare,

                    but he who trusts in the LORD will be safe.

                ²⁶Many seek a ruler’s presence,

                    but a man’s judgment comes from the LORD.

                ²⁷A wrongdoer is the loathing of the righteous,

                    and the wicked’s loathing, the man of straight ways.

CHAPTER 29 NOTES

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1. A man often rebuked. Literally, “a man of rebukes.”

2. When the righteous are many, a people rejoices. This proverb, like the next one and several others in this chapter, is no more than a formulation in verse of a platitude.

3. a chaser of whores will destroy wealth. The objection to consorting with whores is pragmatic, not moral—they will drain all your financial resources.

7. the cause of the poor. “Cause” here is used in its legal sense: the righteous man concerns himself with the struggle of the poor to get justice.

9. the dolt rages. The Hebrew merely says “he,” but “dolt” has been added in the translation to avoid the ambiguity of the pronoun’s antecedent.

10. look out for his life. The received text shows yevaqshu nafsho, “seek his life,” an idiom that everywhere else means to try to kill a person. This translation emends the verb to yevaqru, a difference of one consonant, producing a verb that can have the sense shown in this English version.

11. gives vent . . . / quells. This proverb articulates the view found elsewhere in the book that self-restraint and discretion are important attributes of wisdom.

13. A pauper and a schemer meet. The probable sense of “meet” here is that, for all the differences between these two categories of people, they share one point of commonality—that, whatever their intentions for evil or good and whatever the restrictions of their condition in life, they are equally dependent on God’s illumination in order to achieve insight or a state of well-being (giving light to the eyes may imply both).

16. the righteous will witness their downfall. The literal sense of the verb is “see,” reflecting a recurrent biblical idiom that implies triumph over one’s enemies because one survives to watch them come to a bad end.

17. your palate. The literal sense of the noun nefesh in context is either “throat” or “appetite.” The conjunction with “delicacies” argues against any other sense of this multivalent term.

19. Through words a slave will not accept reproof. The implication, unfortunately, is that the only way to reprove a slave effectively is to beat him. Egyptian Wisdom texts often reflect this idea.

though he understand, there will be no answer. The second verset spells out why it is that verbal reproof of a slave will be unavailing: even if he understands the criticism leveled against him, he will choose not to respond, given his refractory slave’s character.

21. dismay. The Hebrew manon appears nowhere else and is not readily linked with any verbal root that would make sense in context, which makes it look very much like a scribal error. Three different ancient versions render it in ways that point to a Hebrew text that showed manod. That noun, literally “shaking,” elliptical for “shaking of the head,” is a gesture performed when witnessing some sort of disaster.

23. low, / . . . lowly. In both instances, the Hebrew uses the same verbal stem, sh-p-l (tash-pilenu, shefal-ruah)̣, in a pointed antithesis.

24. he will hear the curse. The curse, or imprecation, is probably a solemn curse publicly pronounced that will come down on the head of whosoever has evidence of the crime to offer in court yet remains silent.

25. A man’s fear becomes a snare. The fearful man, in contradistinction to the man who trusts in the LORD, runs the danger of being tripped up by his own anxiety, imagining dangers where they are not and acting timorously where boldness is called for.