Proverbs 20

Translator Notes

1. Lets ha-yayin ('a scoffer is wine') homeh shekhar ('a noisemaker/brawler is strong drink') — wine and beer are personified as the kinds of people wisdom literature most consistently condemns: the scoffer and the troublemaker. Ve-khol shogeh bo lo yekhkam ('and everyone who goes astray by it/them will not be wise'). Alcohol does not merely accompany foolishness; it produces it. The person who is led astray by drink has abandoned the path of wisdom.

Translator Notes

1. Naham ka-kefir eimat melekh ('like the roar of a young lion is the dread of a king') — echoing 19:12. The mit'abbero ('one who crosses him, who provokes his anger') choter nafsho ('sins against his own soul/life, forfeits his own life'). Provoking royal anger is suicidal. The proverb is practical court advice: respect the king's power or suffer the consequences.

Translator Notes

1. Kavod la-ish shevet me-riv ('honor for a person is sitting out of strife, ceasing from quarreling') — the wise person walks away from fights. Ve-khol evil yitgalla ('and every fool breaks out, bursts in, gets entangled'). The fool cannot resist the quarrel; he is drawn to conflict the way a moth is drawn to flame. Restraint is a mark of honor; eagerness to fight is a mark of foolishness.

Translator Notes

1. Me-choref atsel lo yacharosh ('from the cold/winter the lazy person will not plow') — the autumn plowing season in Israel is cold and uncomfortable, and the lazy person refuses to endure it. Ve-sha'al ba-qatsir va-ayin ('and he asks/looks at harvest and there is nothing'). The consequence is mathematical: no plowing, no harvest. The lazy person is surprised by the emptiness that his own inaction guaranteed.

Translator Notes

1. The verb yidlennah ('draws it out') is from dalah ('to draw water from a well') — the same action as lowering a bucket on a rope. The image is of a person reaching down into the deep well of another person's heart and bringing the hidden intention to the surface.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. Rov adam yiqra ish chasdo ('most people proclaim, each one, his own loyal kindness') — nearly everyone advertises their own faithfulness. Ve-ish emunim mi yimtsa ('but a person of faithfulness — who will find?'). The gap between self-proclaimed loyalty and actual reliability is vast. People talk about their chesed; few actually live it. The rhetorical question implies: truly faithful people are extraordinarily rare.

Translator Notes

1. Mithalekh be-tummo tsaddiq ('walking in his integrity is the righteous person') — the righteous person's daily life is characterized by tummah ('wholeness, integrity, completeness'). Ashre vanav acharav ('how fortunate are his children after him'). The righteous person's integrity becomes a legacy — his children inherit not just property but the blessing of a father's good name and honest example.

Translator Notes

1. Melekh yoshev al kisse din ('a king sitting on the throne of judgment') mezareh be-einav kol ra ('winnows with his eyes all evil'). The verb mezareh ('winnows') is from the threshing floor — the king's discerning gaze separates guilt from innocence the way a farmer separates grain from chaff. The ideal king's eyes are tools of justice; his presence itself drives evil away.

Translator Notes

1. The two verbs — zikkiti ('I have purified, cleansed') and taharti ('I am pure, clean') — are both cultic terms normally associated with ritual purification. The proverb applies them to the moral interior: who can claim that their inner life is ritually clean? No one. The question demolishes self-righteousness.

Translator Notes

1. Even va-even eifah ve-eifah ('a stone and a stone, an ephah and an ephah') — having two sets of weights and measures, one for buying (heavier) and one for selling (lighter). To'avat Yahweh gam sheneihem ('an abomination to the LORD, both of them'). The repetition of this theme (11:1, 16:11, 20:23) shows how deeply the sages cared about commercial honesty. God finds double standards in business personally offensive.

Translator Notes

1. Gam be-ma'alalav yitnakker na'ar ('even by his deeds a youth is recognized/known') — character reveals itself early. Im zakh ve-im yashar po'olo ('whether pure and whether upright is his work'). You do not need to wait for adulthood to see who a person is becoming. Childhood behavior is already diagnostic. The proverb encourages early observation and early intervention.

Translator Notes

1. Ozen shoma'at ve-ayin ro'ah ('a hearing ear and a seeing eye') Yahweh asah gam sheneihem ('the LORD made both of them'). The capacity to perceive — to hear truth and to see reality — is a divine gift. If God made the instruments of perception, then perception carries moral weight: we are obligated to use the faculties God gave us. The verse also implies that God who made ear and eye Himself hears and sees all things.

Translator Notes

1. Al te'ehav shenah pen tivvaresh ('do not love sleep lest you be dispossessed/impoverished') — excess sleep is the lazy person's drug of choice. Peqach einekha seva lachem ('open your eyes — satisfaction of bread'). The imperative is blunt: wake up, see what needs to be done, and do it. The reward is simple sufficiency — seva lachem, enough bread. The proverb does not promise wealth, only adequacy as the reward for wakefulness.

Translator Notes

1. Ra ra yomar ha-qoneh ('bad, bad, says the buyer') — the buyer talks down the merchandise to drive the price lower. Ve-ozel lo az yithallal ('and going away from there, then he boasts'). Once he has secured the bargain, he brags about his shrewd deal. The proverb captures the timeless psychology of haggling: public disparagement of goods followed by private celebration of the purchase. The sages found the behavior amusing enough to record.

Translator Notes

1. Yesh zahav ve-rov peninim ('there is gold and abundance of pearls/corals/jewels') — precious materials are available. U-khli yeqar siftei da'at ('but a precious vessel are the lips of knowledge'). Knowledge-bearing speech is rarer and more valuable than gold or gems. The comparison is economic: knowledgeable speech is the scarcest and therefore the most precious commodity.

Translator Notes

1. Leqach bigdo ki arav zar ('take his garment because he has become surety for a stranger') — if someone is foolish enough to guarantee a stranger's debt, seize his cloak as collateral because he is a high credit risk. U-ve'ad nokhrim chablehu ('and for foreigners/outsiders hold him as pledge'). The proverb is practical financial advice: do not trust the creditworthiness of anyone who has pledged for an unknown party.

Translator Notes

1. Arev la-ish lechem shaqer ('sweet/pleasant to a person is bread of deceit') — ill-gotten gains taste good at first. Ve-achar yimmale pihu chatsav ('and afterward his mouth is filled with gravel/crushed stone'). The sweetness turns to gravel — what was pleasant becomes painful, gritty, inedible. The pleasure of dishonest gain is temporary; its consequences are lasting and miserable.

Translator Notes

1. Machashavot be-etsah tikkon ('plans are established through counsel') — echoing 15:22. Good planning requires consultation. U-ve-tachbulot aseh milchamah ('and with guidance/steering make war'). The tachbulot ('strategic guidance, steering') needed for warfare is the highest form of deliberative wisdom — the stakes are lives. If even war requires wise counsel, how much more do lesser decisions.

Translator Notes

1. Goleh sod holekh rakhil ('one who reveals secrets is a gossip/slanderer') — the person who cannot keep confidences is dangerous to befriend. U-le-foteh sefatav lo tit'arav ('and with one who opens wide his lips do not mix/associate'). The warning is social: avoid the company of people who cannot control their speech, because anything you share with them will become public.

Translator Notes

1. Meqallel aviv ve-immo ('one who curses his father and his mother') yid'akh nero be-ishon choshekh ('his lamp will be extinguished in the pupil of darkness, in the deepest darkness'). The ishon choshekh ('apple/pupil of darkness') is the darkest possible darkness — the center of the night, where no light penetrates. Cursing one's parents leads to total extinction. The severity reflects the ancient world's absolute prioritization of parental honor.

Translator Notes

1. Nachalah mevohelet ba-rishonah ('an inheritance hastened/rushed at the beginning') ve-acharitah lo tevorakh ('and its end will not be blessed'). Wealth acquired too quickly — whether through impatience, manipulation, or dishonesty — does not produce lasting blessing. The pattern echoes 13:11: easy money evaporates. The acharit ('end, final outcome') is what matters, and hastily gained wealth fails the long-term test.

Translator Notes

1. Al tomar ashallema ra ('do not say I will repay evil') — do not take vengeance into your own hands. Qavveh la-Yahweh ve-yosha lakh ('wait for the LORD and He will save you'). The command to renounce personal retaliation is paired with a promise: God will handle the justice. This is one of the clearest anti-vengeance statements in the wisdom literature and directly anticipates Romans 12:17-19.

Translator Notes

1. To'avat Yahweh even va-aven ('an abomination to the LORD is a stone and a stone') — repeating the condemnation of verse 10 with slight variation. U-mo'azne mirmah lo tov ('and scales of deceit are not good'). The repetition within a single chapter underscores how seriously the sages took commercial integrity. God's revulsion at fraudulent weights is stated twice because the temptation to cheat in business is persistent.

Translator Notes

1. Me-Yahweh mits'ade gaver ('from the LORD are the steps of a man') — echoing 16:9, God directs the actual trajectory of a person's life. Ve-adam mah yavin darkko ('and a person — how can he understand his way?'). The rhetorical question admits the limits of self-understanding: if God is the one directing our steps, then we cannot fully comprehend why our lives take the paths they do. Humility before divine sovereignty is the appropriate posture.

Translator Notes

1. Moqesh adam yala qodesh ('a snare for a person is to blurt out holy — to rashly declare something as sacred/devoted') ve-achar nedarim levaqqer ('and after vows to investigate/consider'). The proverb warns against impulsive religious commitments — making vows before thinking them through. A vow once spoken to God is binding, so careless dedication creates an inescapable obligation. Think before you vow, not after.

Translator Notes

1. Mezareh resha'im melekh chakham ('winnows the wicked does a wise king') — the same winnowing image from verse 8, now applied specifically to removing evil from the kingdom. Va-yashev aleihem ofan ('and he turns the wheel upon them'). The ofan ('wheel') is the threshing wheel that crushes grain — the wise king does not merely identify the wicked but applies the full weight of justice to them.

Translator Notes

1. The neshimah ('breath, spirit') connects to Genesis 2:7, where God breathes into Adam's nostrils the nishmat chayyim ('breath of life'). That same divine breath now functions as a searchlight, probing the interior spaces of human consciousness. The verse suggests a collaboration between divine illumination and human self-awareness.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. Chesed ve-emet yitsru melekh ('faithful love and truth guard/protect a king') — the paired divine attributes (see 14:22, 16:6) are the king's true bodyguards. Ve-sa'ad ba-chesed kis'o ('and he supports/upholds his throne through chesed'). Political stability depends not on military power but on the king's practice of loyal kindness. The throne endures because of chesed, not because of force.

Translator Notes

1. Tif'eret bachurim kocham ('the glory/beauty of young men is their strength') — youth's distinctive contribution is physical vigor. Va-hadar zeqenim sevah ('and the majesty/splendor of the elderly is gray hair'). Each stage of life has its own glory: youth has power; age has wisdom. The proverb honors both rather than privileging one over the other.

Translator Notes

1. Chabburat petsa tamriq be-ra ('wounds of a blow cleanse/scour away evil') — the metaphor treats corrective suffering as a purifying agent. U-makkot chadre vaten ('and blows reach the chambers of the belly/innermost parts'). Physical consequences penetrate where words cannot reach. The proverb affirms that painful correction can reach the deepest levels of a person's character, purging evil that verbal instruction alone cannot dislodge.