Proverbs 19:20–21

Footnotes

1. 63 The advice refers in all probability to the teachings of the sages that will make one wise.
2. 64 The proverb is one continuous thought, but the second half of the verse provides the purpose for the imperatives of the first half.
3. 65 The imperfect tense has the nuance of a final imperfect in a purpose clause, and so is translated “that you may become wise” (cf. , ).
4. 66 Heb “become wise in your latter end” (cf. , ) which could obviously be misunderstood.
5. 67 The plans (from the Hebrew verb חָשַׁב [khashav], “to think; to reckon; to devise”) in the human heart are many. But only those which God approves will succeed.
6. 68 Heb “in the heart of a man” (cf. , ). Here “heart” is used for the seat of thoughts, plans, and reasoning, so the translation uses “mind.” In contemporary English “heart” is more often associated with the seat of emotion than with the seat of planning and reasoning.
7. 69 Heb “but the counsel of the Lord, it will stand.” The construction draws attention to the “counsel of the Lord”; it is an independent nominative absolute, and the resumptive independent pronoun is the formal subject of the verb.
8. 70 The antithetical parallelism pairs “counsel” with “plans.” “Counsel of the Lord” (עֲצַת יְהוָה, ’atsat yehvah) is literally “advice” or “counsel” with the connotation of “plan” in this context (cf. , , “purpose”; “plan”; “the Lord’s will”). The point of the proverb is that the human being with many plans is uncertain, but the Lord with a sure plan gives correct counsel.