PROV 8:5 Interlinear View

SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 8:1–36: Wisdom calls out to people and reminds them of the benefits of being wise

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

Paragraph 8:4–11

In this paragraph, personified Wisdom invites all mankind to become shrewd and intelligent (4–5). She then describes the good qualities of her words as motivation to heed her invitation (6–9). She ends with another appeal that is based on her high value (10–11).

8:5

Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:

^5a O simple ones, learn to be shrewd;

^5b O fools, gain understanding.

8:5a

O simple ones, learn to be shrewd;

As for you^(plur) who are naive, learn how to be shrewd/clever.
You who are inexperienced, I urge you to add to your ability to make good plans.

O simple ones: In Hebrew, the word simple refers to inexperienced, naive people who allow themselves to be easily persuaded or led astray into foolish behavior.

The same word occurs in 1:4a. See simple in the Glossary.

learn to be shrewd: The word shrewd means “prudence” or “cleverness.” It refers to a person’s ability to make clever plans to achieve his goals.

See the note on 1:4a. See prudence in the Glossary.

8:5a–b

(combined/reordered)

What I say includes you^(plur) who are easily deceived and are too lazy to use your minds. I urge you to become shrewd and to learn how to think.

8:5b

O fools, gain understanding.

You^(plur) who are complacent fools who are too lazy to think, start to become intelligent.

O fools: This word for fools refers to people who do what is stupid and wrong because they are mentally lazy and complacent. They do not see the need to change their own foolish behavior.

The same word occurs in 1:22c. See fool 2 in the Glossary.

gain understanding: The clause that the BSB translates as gain understanding is literally “understand heart.” It means to acquire intelligence. Another way to translate this is:

Learn how to think.

General Comment on 8:5a–b

In some languages, it may be necessary to combine and/or reorder the parallel lines to avoid the impression that the “simple” and the “foolish” are distinct groups of people who are asked to gain different things. See the Display for 8:5a–b (combined/reordered) for one way to do this.

OET-LV English word order (‘Reverse’ interlinear)

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.

OET interlinear PROV 8:5

Hebrew word order