Proverbs 10

New American Bible (Revised Edition)

Footnotes

1. 10:1–22:16 The Proverbs of Solomon are a collection of three hundred and seventy-five proverbs on a wide variety of subjects. No overall arrangement is discernible, but there are many clusters of sayings related by vocabulary and theme. One thread running through the whole is the relationship of the “son,” the disciple, to the parents, and its effect upon the house(hold). In chaps. 10–14 almost all the proverbs are antithetical; “the righteous” and “the wicked” (ethical), “the wise” and “the foolish” (sapiential), and “the devout, the pious” and “the irreverent” (religious). Chapters 15–22 have fewer sharp antitheses. The sayings are generally witty, often indirect, and are rich in irony and paradox.
2. 10:1

   The opening saying ties the whole collection to the first section, for “son,” “father,” and “mother” evoke the opening line of the first instruction, “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and reject not your mother’s teaching.” The son is the subject of parental exhortation throughout chaps. 1–9. This is the first of many sayings on domestic happiness or unhappiness, between parents and children (e.g., 15:20; 17:21) and between husband and wife (e.g., 12:4; 14:1). Founding or maintaining a household is an important metaphor in the book.

   Adult children represented the family (headed by the oldest married male) to the outside world. Foolishness, i.e., malicious ignorance, brought dishonor to the parents and the family.

3. 10:2 Death: untimely, premature, or sorrowful. The word “death” can have other overtones (see Wis 1:15).
4. 10:3 The last of the three introductory sayings in the collection, which emphasize, respectively, the sapiential (v. 1), ethical (v. 2), and religious (v. 3) dimensions of wisdom. In this saying, God will not allow the appetite of the righteous to go unfulfilled. The appetite of hunger is singled out; it stands for all the appetites.
5. 10:6 This saying, like several others in the chapter, plays on the different senses of the verb “to cover.” As in English, “to cover” can mean to fill (as in Is 60:2) and to conceal (as in Jb 16:18). Colon B can be read either “violence fills the mouth (= head) of the wicked” or “the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.” The ambiguity is intentional; the proverb is meant to be read both ways.
6. 10:7 The name of the righteous continues to be used after their death in blessings such as “May you be as blessed as Abraham,” but the wicked, being enemies of God, do not live on in anyone’s memory. Their names rot with their bodies.
7. 10:8 The wise take in instruction from their teachers but those who expel or pour out folly through their words will themselves be expelled.
8. 10:12 Love covers all offenses: a favorite maxim in the New Testament; cf. 1 Cor 13:7; Jas 5:20; 1 Pt 4:8. Cf. also Prv 17:9.
9. 10:13 An unusual juxtaposition of “lips” and “back.” Those who have no wisdom on their lips (words) are fated to feel a punishing rod on their back.
10. 10:15 An observation rather than a moral evaluation of wealth and poverty; but cf. 18:10–11.
11. 10:16 Wages are a metaphor for reward and punishment. The Hebrew word does not mean “sin” here but falling short, a meaning that is frequent in Proverbs. Cf. Rom 6:1: “But what profit did you get then from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.”
12. 10:21 The wise by their words maintain others in life whereas the foolish cannot keep themselves from sin that leads to premature death.
13. 10:22 Human industry is futile without divine approval; cf. Ps 127:1–2; Mt 6:25–34.
14. 10:28 The thought is elliptical. Joy comes from fulfillment of one’s plans, which the righteous can count on. The opposite of joy thus is not sadness but unfulfillment (“perishes”).
15. 10:32 The word used for “favor” is favor shown by an authority (God or the king), not favor shown by a peer. A righteous person’s words create a climate of favor and acceptance, whereas crooked words will not gain acceptance. In Hebrew as in English, straight and crooked are metaphors for good and wicked.