Proverbs 4:14-27, annotated.

 

This translation is from the New Jerusalem Bible. Other translations are available here. Information about the original Hebrew meaning of what seem to be the key words is provided immediately below the scriptural text.  

 

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Do not follow the path of the wicked, do not walk the way that the evil go. ¹⁵Avoid it, do not take it, turn your back on it, pass it by. ¹⁶For they cannot sleep unless they have first done wrong, they miss their sleep if they have not made someone stumble; ¹⁷for the bread of wickedness is what they eat, and the wine of violence is what they drink.

 

¹⁸The path of the upright is like the light of dawn, its brightness growing to the fullness of day; ¹⁹the way of the wicked is as dark as night, they cannot tell the obstacles they stumble over.

 

²⁰My child, pay attention to what I am telling you, listen carefully to my words; ²¹do not let them out of your sight, keep them deep in your heart. ²²For they are life to those who find them and health to all humanity. ²³More than all else, keep watch over your heart, since here are the wellsprings of life.

 

²⁴Turn your back on the mouth that misleads, keep your distance from lips that deceive.

 

²⁵Let your eyes be fixed ahead, your gaze be straight before you. ²⁶Let the path you tread be level and all your ways be firm.²⁷Turn neither to right nor to left, keep your foot clear of evil.

 

***

 

avoid = פָּרַע = pāra  Blue Letter Bible to let go, let loose, ignore, let alone; avoid, neglect; be loosened of restraint; overlook/reject counsel; unbridled;  lawless; cause to refrain; dismiss; refuse  

 

turn = שָׂטָה = śāṭâ Blue Letter Bible  turn aside, go aside, turn, decline

 

wicked = רֶשַׁע = rešaʿ  Blue Letter Bible  wrong, wickedness, guilt; violence and crime against civil law; iniquity; fraud, falsehood

violence = חָמָס = chamac. Blue Letter Bible  violence, wrong, cruelty, injustice; unjust gain; damage; unrighteous; false witness

 

path = אֹרַח = 'ōraḥ  Blue Letter Bible  way, path; road; way of living; a well-trodden road; by-, high-) way; course of living and acting; way of living; mode of living, or of character

 

upright = צַדִּיק = ṣadîq Blue Letter Bible  lawful, righteous; righteous (in government); righteous (in conduct and character); righteous (as justified and vindicated by God); honest, virtuous, pious

 

light = אוֹר = 'owr Blue Letter Bible light of day; light of heavenly luminaries (moon, sun, stars); day-break, dawn, morning light; luminary (in every sense, including lightning, happiness, etc.); bright, clear, day, light (-ning), morning, sun

 

dawn = נֹגַהּ = nōḡah  Blue Letter Bible  brightness; brilliancy (literally or figuratively); shining; shining splendor

brightness = אוֹר = 'ôr  Blue Letter Bible  to illumine, light up, cause to shine, shine; be or become light, shine; be illuminated; become lighted up 

growing = הָלַךְ = halak  Blue Letter Bible  to go; proceed, move; enter; follow; go along; proceed; to go with, have intercourse with; to go after; pursue; live, manner of life; go on, go forward; traverse; march;  flow, be poured out

 

fullness = כּוּן = kûn  Blue Letter Bible  to be firm, be stable, be established; to be fixed, be securely determined;  to prepare, be ready; to be erect (i.e. stand perpendicular); hence (causatively) to set up; make provision; to direct; be right, fit, sincere, firm, constant; sure; established, confirmed; enduring; direct one’s face toward; arrange, order

 

day = יוֹם = yôm  Blue Letter Bible  day, time, year; a working day, a day's journey; the heat of the day; day time, daily; perpetually; lifetime; daily duties, observances, etc. 

 

child = בֵּן = bēn  Blue Letter Bible  son, grandson, child, member of a group; male child; young men; children (pl. - male and female); foster son; disciple; one related to a time, place, emotion, condition, status; term of kindliness or endearment; expression of intimate and gracious relation

 

pay attention = קָשַׁב = qashab Blue Letter Bible to hear, be attentive, heed, incline (of ears), attend (of ears), hearken, pay attention, listen; give attention; to prick up the ears; regard

 

telling you = דָּבָר = dāḇār  Blue Letter Bible  speech, word, speaking, thing; saying, utterance, discourse; confer; advice, counsel; message, report, tidings; tidings; thought; promise; precept, edict; business, occupation, acts, matter, case, something, manner (by extension)

listen carefully = אֹזֶן = 'ōzen  Blue Letter Bible  ear, as organ of hearing; to uncover the ear to reveal; open ears of, reveal to; to place in anyone’s ear; to hear with anyone’s ears 

AND

 נָטָה = natah Blue Letter Bible to stretch out, extend, spread out, pitch, turn, pervert, incline, bend, bow; to turn aside, incline, decline, bend down; hold out; incline, influence; outstretched; wrest, cause to yield; spread oneself; seduce

 

words = אֵמֶר = 'ēmer  Blue Letter Bible  utterance, speech, word, saying, promise; command, mandate; something said; appointed unto him; saying, speech, word 

 

sight = עַיִן = ʿayin  Blue Letter Bible  eye; before my eyes; set one eyes on; spring, fountain

 

keep = שָׁמַר = šāmar  Blue Letter Bible  keep, guard, observe, give heed; retain, treasure up (in memory); preserve; attend to

 

deep = תָּוֶךְ = tāveḵ Blue Letter Bible  midst, middle; into, through; center; with, within 

 

heart = לֵבָב = lebab Blue Letter Bible  inner man, mind, will, heart, soul, understanding; mind, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory; inclination, resolution, determination (of will); seat of appetites; seat of emotions and passions; mode of thinking and acting; will and purpose; intellect

 

life = חַי = ḥay  Blue Letter Bible  living, alive; green (of vegetation); flowing, fresh (of water); lively, active (of man); reviving (of the springtime); appetite; raw; springing; vigorous; prosperity, welfare; living one, fountain of life; community  

 

find =מָצָא = matsa' Blue Letter Bible  attain to, secure, acquire, get (thing sought); to find (what is lost); to learn, devise; to be discovered, be detected; to be gained, be secured; attain, i.e. find or acquire; find out by thinking; to wish to find, seek

 

health = מַרְפֵּא = marpē' Blue Letter Bible  health, healing, cure; sound (of mind); profit; curative, medicine; deliverance; placidity; remedy, sound, wholesome; refreshing

 

humanity  = בָּשָׂר = basar Blue Letter Bible  flesh; the body itself; the whole body; kindred, blood-relations; self

 

More than all else = מִשְׁמָר = mišmār  Blue Letter Bible  confinement, prison, guard, jail, guard post, watch, observance; act of guarding; custody; diligence

 

keep watch = נָצַר = nāṣar Blue Letter Bible  watch over; observe, guard with fidelity; kept close, be blockaded;protect, maintain, obey; preserve 

 

heart= לֵב = lēḇ Blue Letter Bible inner man, mind, will, understanding; midst; soul; mind, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory; inclination, resolution, determination (of will); conscience; seat of appetites, emotions, passions, courage; feelings, the will and even the intellect; the centre of anything

 

wellsprings = תּוֹצָאוֹת = tôṣā'ôṯ  Blue Letter Bible  outgoing, going out; extremity, end; source, source (of life); escape (from death); forth (out), issues, outgoing; place from which goes forth 

 

life = חַי = ḥay  Blue Letter Bible  living, alive; green (of vegetation); flowing, fresh (of water); lively, active (of man); reviving (of the springtime); appetite; raw; springing; vigorous; prosperity, welfare; living one, fountain of life; community  

 

turn your back on = סוּר = sûr  Blue Letter Bible turn aside, depart; avoid; be removed; depose; put aside, leave undone, retract, reject, abolish; eschew; turn off; rebel; put away, withdraw; sour; turn aside to oneself; be without

 

misleads = עִקְּשׁוּת = ʿiqqᵊšûṯ  Blue Letter Bible  distortion, crookedness; perversity, forwardness  

 

keep your distance = רָחַק = rāḥaq Blue Letter Bible  be or become far, be or become distant, be removed, go far away; send far away; make or exhibit distance, be gone far; remove, put far away; loose; widen; recede; cast; wander; refrain; a good way off; remote 

 

deceive = לְזוּת =  lᵊzûṯ  Blue Letter Bible  deviation, perversity, crookedness

 

sight = עַיִן = ʿayin  Blue Letter Bible  eye; before my eyes; set one eyes on; spring, fountain

fixed = נָבַט = nāḇaṭ  Blue Letter Bible  look,  regard, show regard to, pay attention to, consider; look intently at; regard with pleasure, favor or care; behold; desire, gloat

 

ahead = נֹכַח = nōḵaḥ  Blue Letter Bible  in front of, opposite to, in the sight of, before, to the front, right on; towards the front of, in front of, on behalf of, as far as in front of; direct(-ly)

 

gaze = עַפְעַפִּים = ʿap̄ʿapîm  Blue Letter Bible  eyelid; dawn, rays of sun (fig.)

 

straight = יָשַׁר = yāšar Blue Letter Bible  right, straight, level, upright, just, lawful, smooth; straight or even; direct; fit; level; pleasing, agreeable, right; make smooth, straight

 

before you = נֶגֶד = neḡeḏ  Blue Letter Bible   what is conspicuous, what is in front of; in front of, straight forward, before, in sight of; in front of oneself, straightforward; before your face, in your view or purpose; in the presence of, in the sight of; vividly present to 

 

path = מַעְגָּל = maʿgāl  Blue Letter Bible   entrenchment; track; circumvallation; rampart; path, trench, way; wagon-track; rut

 

level = פָּלַס = pālas  Blue Letter Bible  weigh; make level; make smooth; balance; to roll flat, i.e. prepare; weigh (mentally); ponder; make 

 

ways = דֶּרֶךְ = dereḵ  Blue Letter Bible  way, road, distance, journey, manner; path; mode; habit, way; course of life; mode of action

 

firm = כּוּן = kûn  Blue Letter Bible  firm, stable, established; fixed,  securely determined;  prepare, ready; erect (i.e. stand perpendicular); hence (causatively) set up; make provision; direct; right, fit, sincere, firm, constant; sure; established, confirmed; enduring; direct one’s face toward; arrange, order

 

turn= נָטָה = natah Blue Letter Bible to stretch out, extend, spread out, pitch, turn, pervert, incline, bend, bow; turn aside, incline, decline, bend down; hold out; incline, influence; outstretched; wrest, cause to yield; spread oneself; seduce

 

right = יָמִין = yāmîn  Blue Letter Bible the stronger and more dexterous; prosperous; the right or south side  

 

left = שְׂמֹאל = śᵊmō'l  Blue Letter Bible   the left, the left hand, the left side; north

 

turn = סוּר = sûr  Blue Letter Bible turn aside, depart; avoid; be removed; depose; put aside, leave undone, retract, reject, abolish; eschew; turn off; rebel; put away, withdraw; sour; turn aside to oneself; be without

 

evil = רַע = raʿ  Blue Letter Bible  bad, evil, disagreeable, malignant, unpleasant, giving pain, unhappiness, misery, displeasing; sad, unhappy; hurtful; unkind, vicious in disposition, wicked (ethically)

 

 

Proverbs 5, annotated.

This translation is from the New Jerusalem Bible. Other translations are available here. Information about the original Hebrew meaning of what seem to be the key words is provided immediately below the scriptural text.  A post dealing with part of this chapter is hyperlinked at the end of this post.

 

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My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen carefully to what I know; ²so that you may preserve discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. 

 

Take no notice of a loose-living woman, ³for the lips of the adulteress drip with honey, her palate is more unctuous than oil,⁴but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. ⁵Her feet go down to death, Sheol the goal of her steps; ⁶far from following the path of life, her course is uncertain and she does not know it.

 

⁷And now, son, listen to me, never deviate from what I say: ⁸set your course as far from her as possible, go nowhere near the door of her house, ⁹or she will hand over your honour to others, the years of your life to a man without pity, ¹⁰and strangers will batten on your property, and your produce go to the house of a stranger, ¹¹and, at your ending, your body and flesh having been consumed, you will groan ¹²and exclaim, 'Alas, I hated discipline, my heart spurned all correction; ¹³I would not attend to the voice of my masters, I would not listen to those who tried to teach me. ¹⁴Now I have come to nearly every kind of misery, in the assembly and in the community.'

 

¹⁵Drink the water from your own storage-well, fresh water from your own spring. ¹⁶Even if your fountains overflow outside, your streams of water in the public squares: ¹⁷let them be for you alone, and not for strangers with you. ¹⁸May your fountain-head be blessed! Find joy with the wife you married in your youth, ¹⁹fair as a hind, graceful as a fawn: hers the breasts that ever fill you with delight, hers the love that ever holds you captive.

 

²⁰Why be seduced, my son, by someone else's wife, and fondle the breast of a woman who belongs to another? ²¹For the eyes of Yahweh observe human ways, and survey all human paths. ²²The wicked is snared in his own misdeeds, is caught in the meshes of his own sin. ²³For want of discipline, he dies, led astray by his own excessive folly.

 

***

 

son = בֵּן = bēn  Blue Letter Bible  son, grandson, child, member of a group; male child; young men; children (pl. - male and female); foster son; disciple; one related to a time, place, emotion, condition, status; term of kindliness or endearment; expression of intimate and gracious relation

 

pay attention = קָשַׁב = qashab Blue Letter Bible to hear, be attentive, heed, incline (of ears), attend (of ears), hearken, pay attention, listen; give attention; to prick up the ears; regard

 

wisdom = חָכְמָה = ḥāḵmâ  Blue Letter Bible a divine attribute or energy; cleverness; shrewdness; skill; prudence; dexterity; wit; piety towards God

 

listen carefully = אֹזֶן = 'ōzen  Blue Letter Bible  ear, as organ of hearing; to uncover the ear to reveal; open ears of, reveal to; to place in anyone’s ear; to hear with anyone’s ears 

AND

 נָטָה = natah Blue Letter Bible to stretch out, extend, spread out, pitch, turn, pervert, incline, bend, bow; turn aside, incline, decline, bend down; hold out; incline, influence; outstretched; wrest, cause to yield; spread oneself; seduce

 

understanding = תָּבוּן = tāḇûn  Blue Letter Bible  understanding, intelligence; the act of understanding; skill; the faculty of understanding; insight; the object of knowledge; teacher (personification); discretion; reason; skillfulness;  wisdom

 

preserve = שָׁמַר = šāmar  Blue Letter Bible  keep, guard, observe, give heed; retain, treasure up (in memory); preserve; attend to

 

discretion = מְזִמָּה = mᵊzimmâ  Blue Letter Bible   purpose, discretion; sagacity; thought; prudence; counsel; power of devising

 

lips = שָׂפָה = śāp̄â  Blue Letter Bible   lip, language, speech; edge, shore, bank (of cup, sea, river, etc), border 

 

guard = נָצַר = nāṣar Blue Letter Bible  watch over; observe, guard with fidelity; kept close, be blockaded; protect, maintain, obey; preserve 

 

knowledge = דַּעַת = daʿaṯ  Blue Letter Bible   knowledge, perception, skill; discernment, understanding, wisdom; cunning; knowing; intelligence

 

loose living woman = זוּר = zûr Blue Letter Bible to be strange, be a stranger; to become estranged; foreigner, an enemy; loathsome; prostitute, harlot; alienated; profane; turn aside; depart; of another family; profligate 

 

drip with honey = חָלָק = ḥālāq Blue Letter Bible  flattering, smooth; slippery, deceitful 

 

son = בֵּן = bēn  Blue Letter Bible  son, grandson, child, member of a group; male child; young men; children (pl. - male and female); foster son; disciple; one related to a time, place, emotion, condition, status; term of kindliness or endearment; expression of intimate and gracious relation

 

listen = שָׁמַע = šāmaʿ  Blue Letter Bible   listen to, obey; perceive by ear; hear with attention or interest; give heed; consent, agree; yield to; be obedient; hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc.); hear and answer

 

deviate = סוּר = sûr  Blue Letter Bible turn aside, depart; avoid; be removed; depose; put aside, leave undone, retract, reject, abolish; eschew; turn off; rebel; put away, withdraw; sour; turn aside to oneself; be without

 

what I say = אֵמֶר = 'ēmer  Blue Letter Bible  utterance, speech, word, saying, promise; command, mandate; something said; appointed unto him; saying, speech, word 

 

course = דֶּרֶךְ = dereḵ  Blue Letter Bible  way, road, distance, journey, manner; path; mode; habit, way; course of life; mode of action

 

far from = רָחַק = rāḥaq Blue Letter Bible  be or become far, be or become distant, be removed, go far away; send far away; make or exhibit distance, be gone far; remove, put far away; loose; widen; recede; cast; wander; refrain; a good way off; remote 

 

near = קָרַב = qāraḇ Blue Letter Bible to come near, approach, enter into, draw near; cause to approach 

 

door = פֶּתַח = peṯaḥ  Blue Letter Bible   opening, doorway, entrance; gate

 

house = בַּיִת = bayiṯ  Blue Letter Bible   house, dwelling, habitation, abode; place; receptacle; home; house as containing a family; palace, fortress; inner part, family

 

hated = שָׂנֵא = śānē'  Blue Letter Bible  to hate, be hateful; enemy, foe; be odious

 

discipline = מוּסָר = muwcar  Blue Letter Bible  discipline, chastening, correction; reproof, warning or instruction; doctrine, instruction, rebuke; admonition; restraint

 

spurned = נָאַץ = nā'aṣ  Blue Letter Bible  spurn, contemn, despise, abhor; deride, reject; blaspheme, speak evil

 

reproof = תּוֹכֵחָה = towkechah  Blue Letter Bible  rebuke, correction, reproof, punishment, chastisement; argument, impeachment; refutation; chiding; arguing down, contradicting

 

attend = שָׁמַע = šāmaʿ  Blue Letter Bible   listen to, obey; perceive by ear; hear with attention or interest; give heed; consent, agree; yield to; be obedient; hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc.); hear and answer

 

voice = קוֹל = qôl  Blue Letter Bible  proclaim; command, entreat; claim; sing out; thundering; with a loud voice; voice, sound, noise;  call aloud; a voice or sound; bleating, crackling, lowing, neighing, stamping of feet; noise of inanimate objects; lightness, frivolity

 

masters = יָרָה = yarah Blue Letter Bible point out; show; direct, teach, instruct; throw, shoot, cast, pour; to flow as water (i.e. to rain); point out (as if by aiming the finger); direct, inform, instruct, lay, shew; lay foundations; to sprinkle, water; to send out the hand

 

listen = נָטָה = natah Blue Letter Bible to stretch out, extend, spread out, pitch, turn, pervert, incline, bend, bow; to turn aside, incline, decline, bend down; hold out; incline, influence; outstretched; wrest, cause to yield; spread oneself; seduce

AND

 אֹזֶן = 'ōzen  Blue Letter Bible  ear, as organ of hearing; to uncover the ear to reveal; open ears of, reveal to; to place in anyone’s ear; to hear with anyone’s ears 

 

teach = לָמַד = lāmaḏ Blue Letter Bible  learn, teach, exercise in; to be taught, be trained; to goad; instruct; chastise, discipline; to train, accustom

 

Drink = שָׁתָה = shathah Blue Letter Bible  feast, banquet; be drunk; to imbibe (literally or figuratively); drink up; drink together

 

water = מַיִם = mayim Blue Letter Bible water; figuratively, juice; by euphemism, urine, semen

 

storage well = בּוֹר = bôr  Blue Letter Bible  pit; well, cistern; dungeon; fountain; sepulcher   

 

fresh water = נָזַל = nazal Blue Letter Bible to flow, distil, flow forth or down, trickle, drop; streams, floods (participle); cause to flow; shed by trickling; gush out, melt, pour (down), running water, stream; fluids; like other verbs of flowing; is to be construed as an acc. of whatever flows plentifully

 

spring = בְּאֵר = bᵊ'ēr  Blue Letter Bible  well, often made by digging; pit, spring

 

alone =בַּד = bad Blue Letter Bible  by itself; apart; separation; alone, by itself, besides, a part, separation, being alone

 

stranger = זוּר = zûr Blue Letter Bible be strange, be a stranger; become estranged; foreigner, an enemy; loathsome; prostitute, harlot; alienated; profane; turn aside; depart; of another family; profligate 

Find joy with the wife you married in your youth

 

Find joy = שָׂמַח = śāmaḥ  Blue Letter Bible  rejoice, be glad; gladden, make glad; brighten up; make blithe or gleesome; cheer up; make merry; take pleasure in; joyful or cheerful   

 

wife = אִשָּׁה = 'iššâ  Blue Letter Bible woman, wife, female; together 

 

youth = נָעֻר = nāʿur Blue Letter Bible  youth, early life; childhood; adolescence

 

***

Scriptural directions for husbands, annotated—Proverbs 5:15-19  

Proverbs 6:1-5, annotated.

This translation is from the New Jerusalem Bible. Other translations are available here. Information about the original Hebrew meaning of what seem to be the key words is provided immediately below the scriptural text.  Collections of scriptures dealing with similar principles are hyperlinked at the end of this post.

***

My child, if you have gone surety for your neighbor, if you have guaranteed the bond of a stranger, ²if you have committed yourself with your lips, if through words of yours you have been entrapped, ³do this, my child, to extricate yourself -- since you have put yourself in the power of your neighbor: go, humble yourself, plead with your neighbor,⁴give your eyes no sleep, your eyelids no rest, ⁵break free like a gazelle from the trap, like a bird from the fowler's clutches.

 

***

son = בֵּן = bēn  Blue Letter Bible  son, grandson, child, member of a group; male child; young men; children (pl. - male and female); foster son; disciple; one related to a time, place, emotion, condition, status; term of kindliness or endearment; expression of intimate and gracious relation

 

gone surety = עָרַב = ʿāraḇ  Blue Letter Bible  to pledge, exchange, mortgage; give pledges, be or become surety, take on pledge, give in pledge; occupy, undertake for; to braid, i.e. intermix 

 

guaranteed = תָּקַע = tāqaʿ Blue Letter Bible  to strike or pledge oneself; slap (the hands together); to drive (a nail or tent-pin, a dart, etc.); by implication, to become bondsman by handclasping); to blow, clap, strike, sound, thrust, give a blow, blast; gesture ratifying a bargain, specifically pledging oneself to become surety

 

committed = יָקֹשׁ = yāqōš  Blue Letter Bible  to lure, entice, snare, lay a snare or lure, set a trap; ensnared,  caught by a bait

 

entrapped = לָכַד = lāḵaḏ  Blue Letter Bible  capture, take, seize; be frozen, be holden, stick together; intercept  

 

do = עָשָׂה = ʿāśâ  Blue Letter Bible  do, fashion, accomplish, make; work, produce; deal (with); to act, act with effect, effect; attend to, put in order; to observe, celebrate; advance; follow, fulfill; be industrious, labor; yield; produce by labor

 

son = בֵּן = bēn  Blue Letter Bible  son, grandson, child, member of a group; male child; young men; children (pl. - male and female); foster son; disciple; one related to a time, place, emotion, condition, status; term of kindliness or endearment; expression of intimate and gracious relation

 

extricate = נָצַל = nāṣal Blue Letter Bible snatch away, deliver, rescue; torn out or away; defend; preserve; draw out, pull out

 

go = יָלַךְ = yālaḵ Blue Letter Bible  go, walk, come; lead, bring, lead away, carry, cause to walk; journey; proceed

 

humble = רָפַשׂ = rāp̄aś  Blue Letter Bible tread with the feet; stamp oneself down; to trample, i.e. prostrate; humble oneself; submit self

 

plead = רָהַב = rāhaḇ  Blue Letter Bible  urge severely; behave proudly, act stormily or boisterously or arrogantly; beset, importune; to disturb, alarm, awe, confuse, make bold or proud; overcome; trembling; hastening; rage, be fierce; press upon, press greatly, urge on; be courageous

 

break free = נָצַל = nāṣal Blue Letter Bible to snatch away, deliver, rescue; be torn out or away; defend; preserve; draw out, pull out

 

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Wisdom Principles: Guaranteeing Others’ Obligations