Proverbs 14:7

Footnotes

1. 17 Heb “a man, a stupid fellow.”
2. 18 Heb “and.” The vav (ו) that introduces this clause may be understood as meaning “or.…”
3. 19 The reads וּבַל־יָדַעְתָּ (uval-yada’ta, “you did not know [the lips of knowledge]).” It must mean that one should leave the fool because he did not receive knowledge from what fools said. freely interprets the verse: “for there is no knowledge on his lips.” The reflects a Hebrew of וּכְלֵי־דַעַת (ukhéle-da’at, “[wise lips] are weapons of discretion”). The textual variant involves wrong word division and orthographic confusion between ב (bet) and ך (kaf). C. H. Toy emends the text: “for his lips do not utter knowledge” as in 15:7 (Proverbs [], ). The is workable and more difficult.
4. 20 Heb “lips of knowledge” (so , ). “Lips” is the metonymy of cause, and “knowledge” is an objective genitive (speaking knowledge) or attributive genitive (knowledgeable speech): “wise counsel.”