Proverbs 10

Translator Notes

1. The superscription mishle Shelomoh ('proverbs of Solomon') marks the beginning of the main collection. The first proverb grounds everything in the family: the ben chakham ('wise son') produces simchah ('joy') for the father, while the ben kesil ('foolish son') produces tugat ('grief, sorrow') for the mother. The asymmetry of father/mother rather than father/father is typical of Proverbs' inclusive parallelism — both parents are affected, though named separately.

Translator Notes

1. Otsrot resha ('treasures of wickedness') — wealth acquired through evil means — lo yo'ilu ('do not profit, provide no benefit'). Against this, tsedaqah ('righteousness') tatsil mimmavet ('delivers from death'). The proverb compresses a massive theological claim into a single line: moral character, not material wealth, determines survival.

Translator Notes

1. YHWH lo yar'iv ('the LORD will not cause to hunger') the nefesh tsaddiq ('soul/appetite of the righteous'). God actively provides for the righteous. Conversely, havvat resha'im yehdof ('the desire/craving of the wicked He pushes away, He repels'). The verb hadaf ('to push, to thrust, to drive away') is forceful — God actively resists the wicked's desires.

Translator Notes

1. The double meaning of remiyyah ('slack' and 'deceitful') links laziness to dishonesty — both are forms of failure to do what the situation requires. The sluggard and the fraud are, at root, the same character.

Translator Notes

1. The ant lesson of 6:6-8 returns in proverbial form. The oger baqqayits ('one who gathers in summer') is a ben maskil ('a prudent/wise son'). The nirdam baqqatsir ('one who sleeps deeply during harvest') is a ben mevish ('a son who causes shame, who brings disgrace'). Harvest is time-sensitive — the grain will rot or fall if not gathered promptly. Sleeping through harvest is not merely lazy but destructive.

Translator Notes

1. Berakhot ('blessings') rest on the rosh tsaddiq ('head of the righteous') like a crown. The pi resha'im ('mouth of the wicked') yekhasseh chamas ('covers/conceals violence'). The wicked person's mouth is a cover for violence — what comes out as words hides what lives within as malice. The contrast between visible blessing and concealed violence is sharp.

Translator Notes

1. In Hebrew culture, the shem ('name') is not a label but an identity — it carries the person's character and reputation forward through time. A rotting name is a rotting legacy. The most feared fate in ancient Israel was not death but being forgotten or remembered with disgust.

Translator Notes

1. Chakham lev ('wise of heart') yiqqach mitsvot ('receives/accepts commands') — the wise are teachable, willing to take direction. The evil sefatayim ('fool of lips, babbling fool') yillabet ('will be tripped up, will stumble, will come to ruin'). The contrast is between receiving (wise) and producing without receiving (fool). The fool talks when he should listen and stumbles because his mouth is open when his ears should be.

Translator Notes

1. Holekh battom ('the one walking in integrity/wholeness') yelekh betach ('walks securely, walks confidently'). The tom ('integrity') produces betach ('security') — the honest person has nothing to hide and therefore nothing to fear. The me'aqqesh derakhav ('the one who makes crooked his ways') yivvadea ('will be known, will be found out, will be exposed'). The crooked cannot stay hidden forever.

Translator Notes

1. Qorets ayin ('one who winks the eye') echoes the troublemaker of 6:13. The wink signals deception and conspiracy. The second line repeats 10:8b exactly — the babbling fool appears twice in this chapter, reinforcing the danger of uncontrolled speech.

Translator Notes

1. Pi tsaddiq ('the mouth of the righteous') is a meqor chayyim ('fountain/source of life'). The same meqor ('source, spring') imagery from 4:23 ('springs of life') now flows through the righteous person's speech. Words from the righteous give life. The second line repeats verse 6b — the wicked mouth covers violence.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The covering of pesha'im ('offenses, transgressions, rebellions') by love is not denial or enabling but a choice about what to do with information. The hateful person uses offenses as weapons; the loving person uses discretion as a shield.

Translator Notes

1. The navon ('discerning person') carries wisdom on his lips — it is available, ready, findable. The chasar lev ('one lacking sense/heart') receives a shevet ('rod, staff') on the gev ('back'). What the wise communicate through words, the fool must learn through pain. The rod is not cruelty but the only pedagogy the fool's closed ears will accept.

Translator Notes

1. Chakhamim yitspe'nu da'at ('the wise treasure/store up knowledge') — the same verb tsaphan from 2:1. The wise accumulate knowledge like savings. The pi evil ('mouth of the fool') is mechittah qerovah ('near destruction, destruction is close'). The fool's mouth is not a fountain of life (v11) but a proximity alarm for catastrophe.

Translator Notes

1. Hon ashir ('the wealth of the rich person') is qiryat uzzo ('his city of strength, his fortified city') — wealth provides protection, security, a wall against misfortune. Mechittat dallim resham ('the ruin of the poor is their poverty') — poverty is not merely uncomfortable but destructive, leaving the poor exposed to every threat the wealthy are shielded from. The proverb observes without prescribing — it does not say this arrangement is just, only that it exists.

Translator Notes

1. Pe'ullat tsaddiq ('the work/wages of the righteous') leads lechayyim ('to life'). Tevu'at rasha ('the produce/income of the wicked') leads lechatta't ('to sin'). Wealth itself is morally neutral — what matters is whose hands it is in. In the hands of the righteous, earnings produce more life; in the hands of the wicked, income funds more sin.

Translator Notes

1. Shomer musar ('the one who guards discipline') is on an orach lechayyim ('path to life'). The ozev tokhachat ('the one who abandons correction') mat'eh ('wanders, leads astray, causes to err'). The hinge between life and death is not talent or luck but the willingness to be corrected.

Translator Notes

1. Two speech-sins: mekhasseh sin'ah ('concealing hatred') behind siftei shaqer ('lips of falsehood') — pretending friendship while harboring malice. And motsi dibbah ('spreading slander, putting out a bad report'). Both are foolish because both corrupt the social fabric that sustains community.

Translator Notes

1. Berov devarim lo yechdal pasha ('in a multitude of words, transgression does not cease') — the more you talk, the more likely you are to sin. The probability of offense increases with volume. Vechosekh sefatav maskil ('but the one who holds back his lips is prudent'). Restraint of speech is a hallmark of wisdom throughout Proverbs. The wise speak less not because they know less but because they know enough to be careful.

Translator Notes

1. Leshon tsaddiq ('the tongue of the righteous') is keseph nivchar ('choice silver, selected silver') — refined, tested, valuable. Lev resha'im ('the heart of the wicked') is kim'at ('like a little, worth little, nearly nothing'). The righteous person's speech is precious metal; the wicked person's entire inner life is nearly worthless.

Translator Notes

1. Siftei tsaddiq yir'u rabbim ('the lips of the righteous shepherd/feed many') — the verb ra'ah ('to shepherd, to feed, to tend') applies pastoral imagery to speech. The righteous person's words feed the community as a shepherd feeds a flock. Evilim bachsar lev yamutu ('fools die in their lack of heart'). The absence of the heart/sense that wisdom provides is literally fatal.

Translator Notes

1. Birkat YHWH hi ta'ashir ('the blessing of the LORD — it enriches'). The pronoun hi ('it') is emphatic: the blessing itself does the work. Velo yosif etsev immah ('and He does not add pain/toil/sorrow with it'). Wealth from God comes without the etsev ('pain, toil, grief') that accompanies wealth gained through overwork or dishonesty. This is not a promise that the blessed never suffer but that God's blessing does not carry a hidden cost.

Translator Notes

1. Kisechoq likhsil asot zimmah ('like laughter/sport to a fool is doing wickedness') — the fool treats evil as entertainment, as a game. But chokmah le-ish tevunah ('wisdom belongs to a person of understanding') — wisdom comes as naturally to the discerning as depravity comes to the fool. What each finds easy reveals what each is.

Translator Notes

1. Megorat rasha ('the dread/fear of the wicked person') hi tevo'ennu ('it will come upon him') — the wicked person's worst fear becomes reality. Ta'avat tsaddiqim yitten ('the desire of the righteous He gives, He grants'). The proverb asserts a moral symmetry: dread comes true for the wicked; desire comes true for the righteous.

Translator Notes

1. Ka'avor sufah ('when the whirlwind passes through') ve-ein rasha ('the wicked is no more, the wicked has vanished'). The storm imagery from 1:27 returns: the wicked are swept away like chaff. Vetsaddiq yesod olam ('but the righteous is a foundation of eternity') — the righteous person is as permanent as a building's foundation. The storm test separates the rooted from the rootless — echoing Jesus' later parable of the house on the rock (Matthew 7:24-27).

Translator Notes

1. Two sensory irritants: chomets ('vinegar') that sets the teeth on edge and ashan ('smoke') that stings the eyes. The atsel ('sluggard') produces the same effect on those who rely on him — persistent, low-grade irritation that makes everything harder. The sluggard does not merely fail to perform; he actively aggravates everyone depending on him.

Translator Notes

1. Yirat YHWH tosif yamim ('the fear of the LORD adds days') — long life again as the fruit of right relationship with God. Ushenot resha'im tiqtsornah ('but the years of the wicked will be shortened, cut short'). The verb qatsar ('to be short, to reap, to harvest early') suggests premature death — the wicked do not live out their allotted years.

Translator Notes

1. Tocheleth tsaddiqim simchah ('the hope/waiting of the righteous is joy') — what the righteous wait for arrives, producing simchah ('gladness, joy'). Tiqvat resha'im toved ('the hope/cord/expectation of the wicked perishes'). The tiqvah can mean both 'hope' and 'cord, line' — the wicked person's lifeline snaps.

Translator Notes

1. Derekh YHWH ('the way of the LORD') is ma'oz ('stronghold, refuge, fortress') for the tam ('blameless, person of integrity') but mechittah ('destruction, ruin') for po'ale aven ('workers of iniquity'). The same divine way functions as both protection and destruction depending on who encounters it.

Translator Notes

1. Tsaddiq le-olam bal yimmot ('the righteous person forever will not be moved, will not totter') echoes Psalm 15:5 and Psalm 16:8. Urshe'aim lo yishkenu erets ('but the wicked will not dwell in the land') reprises 2:21-22 — the land-theology of Deuteronomy applied to individual ethics.

Translator Notes

1. Pi tsaddiq yanuv chokmah ('the mouth of the righteous buds/bears fruit of wisdom') — the verb nuv ('to bear fruit, to flourish, to sprout') presents the righteous mouth as a fruit tree, connecting to the tree-of-life imagery of 3:18. Ulshon tahpukhot tikkaret ('but the tongue of perversity will be cut off') — the karath ('to cut off') is the language of covenant severance and death.

Translator Notes

1. Siftei tsaddiq yed'un ratson ('the lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, what is fitting, what pleases'). The verb yada ('to know') applied to lips means they have the discernment to speak the right word at the right time. Pi resha'im tahpukhot ('the mouth of the wicked — perversity'). The chapter ends as it has run: righteous speech gives life; wicked speech inverts reality. The thirty-two verses have returned again and again to the same point: what comes out of the mouth reveals and determines who you are.