Open Bible Data Home About News OET Key
OET OET-RV OET-LV ULT UST BSB MSB BLB AICNT OEB WEBBE WMBB NET LSV FBV TCNT T4T LEB BBE Moff JPS Wymth ASV DRA YLT Drby RV SLT Wbstr KJB-1769 KJB-1611 Bshps Gnva Cvdl TNT Wycl SR-GNT UHB BrLXX BrTr Related Topics Parallel Interlinear Reference Dictionary Search
InterlinearVerse GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOB JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM PSA AMOS HOS 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR PROV ECC SNG JOEL MIC ISA ZEP HAB JER LAM YNA (JNA) NAH OBA DAN EZE EZRA EST NEH HAG ZEC MAL LAO GES LES ESG DNG 2 PS TOB JDT WIS SIR BAR LJE PAZ SUS BEL MAN 1 MAC 2 MAC 3 MAC 4 MAC YHN (JHN) MARK MAT LUKE ACTs YAC (JAM) GAL 1 TH 2 TH 1 COR 2 COR ROM COL PHM EPH PHP 1 TIM TIT 1 PET 2 PET 2 TIM HEB YUD (JUD) 1 YHN (1 JHN) 2 YHN (2 JHN) 3 YHN (3 JHN) REV
Prov C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24 C25 C26 C27 C28 C29 C30 C31
Prov 8 V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V7 V8 V9 V10 V11 V12 V13 V14 V15 V16 V17 V18 V19 V20 V21 V22 V23 V24 V25 V26 V27 V28 V29 V30 V31 V32 V33 V35 V36
OET (OET-LV) How_blessed is_anyone who_listens to_me by_keeping_watch at doors_of_my day day to_guard/protect the_doorposts_of my_doorways_of_my.
OET (OET-RV) People who listen to me will be blessed
⇔ keeping watch on my doors every day—guarding my doorway,
In contrast to the previous section describing the adulterous woman, this section describes personified Wisdom. The public setting for Wisdom’s speech is described in 8:1–3. In 8:4–11, she addresses all mankind and describes her own character. In 8:12–21, she provides reasons why people should choose her. Additional motivation is given in 8:22–31: Wisdom was with the LORD when he created the world. The section ends with Wisdom appealing to mankind to follow her teaching (8:32–36).
This section is a speech by personified Wisdom. As in Wisdom’s speech in 1:20–33, the Notes have used a capital letter for Wisdom in most verses. However, in her speech, Wisdom sometimes refers to “wisdom” as an ability that people have or use or should try to obtain. In some of these contexts, the Notes have used small letters for “wisdom.” The Display will often give more than one option. You may use either option in your language, depending on what is appropriate in each context.
Some other headings for this section are:
Wisdom’s Call (NIV)
Listen to Wisdom (NCV)
The good qualities of Wisdom
Wisdom’s second invitation to people
This paragraph concludes Wisdom’s speech with a final appeal that people follow her teaching. If they do, they will be blessed with life and with the LORD’s favor. If they refuse, the result will be harm and death.
In this verse, the last two lines are similar in meaning. They both indicate in figurative language the attitude of a person who is eager to listen to Wisdom.
34aBlessed is the man who listens to me,
34b watching daily at my doors,
34c waiting at the posts of my doorway.
Blessed is the man who listens to me,
How happy are those who listen to my advice.
Blessed is the man who listens to me: For the word Blessed, see 8:32b. For the verb listens, see 1:8a.
(combined/reordered)
Happy is the person who comes every day to my house and watches carefully for the opportunity to enter and listen to my words.
(combined/reordered)
In order to do this, they keep watch every day outside my doorway, waiting alertly so that they can enter.
watching daily at my doors, waiting at the posts of my doorway: The two verbs translated here as watching and waiting overlap in meaning. Both can mean “to watch.” When they are used as parallel terms, the first verb emphasizes paying careful attention, and the second verb stresses being alert or watchful. These two lines describe a person who alertly keeps watch outside the door of Wisdom’s house. He does this so that he may take advantage of every opportunity to enter the house, meet with her, and listen to her words.Whybray (page 139), Murphy (page 54) and Fox (page 290) suggest that this is a picture of a lover waiting at the door for a glimpse of his beloved, but McKane (page 358) understands it as a picture of how the disciples of the wisdom teacher would gather for instruction at the door of his house. Delitzsch (page 141) takes it to be those who wait at the entrance to the palace at which Wisdom is queen, so as not to miss the moment when the door is opened.
doors…doorway: The first term is literally “gates.” The second term refers to the “doorpost” in a doorway. However, in this context, these terms function together as synonyms. No difference in meaning is intended. Both terms refer to the door, doorway, or entrance to Wisdom’s house. In some languages, it may not be necessary to specify “door” or “doorway.” That idea may be implicit in the statement about watching outside Wisdom’s house. See the Display for 8:34a–c (combined/reordered).
watching daily at my doors,
Every day they watch near/outside the door of my house for me to appear.
waiting at the posts of my doorway.
They wait at the entrance.
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / genericnoun
אָדָם֮
humankind
The word man represents a person in general, not one particular man. If it would be helpful, you could use an expression that would be more natural in your language. Alternate translation: “is any person”
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / parallelism
לִשְׁקֹ֣ד עַל־דַּ֭לְתֹתַי י֤וֹם ׀ י֑וֹם לִ֝שְׁמֹ֗ר מְזוּזֹ֥ת פְּתָחָֽי
by,keeping_watch on/upon/above/on_account_of//he/it_went_in doors_of,my day day to=guard/protect posts_of my_doorways_of,my
These two clauses mean basically the same thing. The second clause emphasizes the meaning of the first by repeating the same idea with different words. If it would be helpful to your readers, you could connect the clauses with a word that shows that the second clause is repeating the first one, not saying something additional. Alternate translation: “keeping vigil over my doors day by day, yes, keeping watch over the doorposts of my entrances”
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor
לִשְׁקֹ֣ד עַל־דַּ֭לְתֹתַי י֤וֹם ׀ י֑וֹם לִ֝שְׁמֹ֗ר מְזוּזֹ֥ת פְּתָחָֽי
by,keeping_watch on/upon/above/on_account_of//he/it_went_in doors_of,my day day to=guard/protect posts_of my_doorways_of,my
Here Wisdom speaks of someone being eager to listen to her as if that person were vigilantly waiting at the door to her house, waiting for her to come out. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express the meaning plainly or use a simile. Alternate translation: “being extremely eager to hear wise counsel” or “being eager to listen to me as if one were keeping vigil over my doors day by day, keeping watch over the doorposts of my entrances”
Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
לִשְׁקֹ֣ד עַל־דַּ֭לְתֹתַי י֤וֹם ׀ י֑וֹם לִ֝שְׁמֹ֗ר מְזוּזֹ֥ת פְּתָחָֽי
by,keeping_watch on/upon/above/on_account_of//he/it_went_in doors_of,my day day to=guard/protect posts_of my_doorways_of,my
The author assumes that his readers will understand that Happy is the man also applies to this part of the sentence. You could repeat it here if that would be helpful to your readers. Alternate translation: [happy is the man keeping vigil over my doors day by day, keeping watch over the doorposts of my entrances.]
Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
לִשְׁקֹ֣ד עַל־דַּ֭לְתֹתַי י֤וֹם ׀ י֑וֹם לִ֝שְׁמֹ֗ר מְזוּזֹ֥ת פְּתָחָֽי
by,keeping_watch on/upon/above/on_account_of//he/it_went_in doors_of,my day day to=guard/protect posts_of my_doorways_of,my
Here, doors and doorposts of my entrances implies that Wisdom has a house. If it would be helpful in your language, you could state this explicitly. Alternate translation: “keeping vigil over the doors of my house day by day, keeping watch over the doorposts of the entrances of my house”
8:32-36 Wisdom offers great rewards to those who listen to and follow wisdom.
OET (OET-LV) How_blessed is_anyone who_listens to_me by_keeping_watch at doors_of_my day day to_guard/protect the_doorposts_of my_doorways_of_my.
OET (OET-RV) People who listen to me will be blessed
⇔ keeping watch on my doors every day—guarding my doorway,
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The Hebrew text, lemmas, and morphology are all thanks to the OSHB and some of the glosses are from Macula Hebrew.