Bible Commentaries

Proverbs 18:1. MT yields no satisfactory sense. The LXX reads "The man who wishes to separate from his friends seeks pretexts, but is always liable to reproach." Frankenberg renders "the alienated friend seeks an occasion (emending the word for ‘desire'), seeks by all means to stir up strife."

Proverbs 18:4. RV translates correctly, but the sense is strange. Read, perhaps, "The words of the wise are deep waters, a flowing brook, a fountain of life," but this is conjecture rather than emendation.

Proverbs 18:5. cf. Proverbs 17:26, which may have originally followed this verse.

Proverbs 18:6-8. A group on rash and slanderous speech.

Proverbs 18:8. Repeated in Proverbs 26:22.—dainty morsels (AV "wounds") has occasioned much difficulty. The RV translation rests on an Arabic form meaning "to swallow eagerly." The sense refers to the pleasure with which slanderers' gossip is received.

Proverbs 18:10 expresses a point of view not common in Pr., but frequent in Pss. (cf. Isaiah 26:8), the attitude of the pious toward the character of God as represented by His Name. There is no suggestion here of the magical value subsequently attached by the Jews to the "ineffable Name."

Proverbs 18:11. cf. Proverbs 10:15.

Proverbs 18:16-18. Three reflections on the ways of litigation—the value of a bribe, the necessity of hearing both sides, and the use of the lot to decide doubtful cases.

Proverbs 18:19. MT is unintelligible (note italics in RV). No satisfactory emendation has been proposed.

Proverbs 18:20 f. Two aphorisms on the nemesis which overtakes rash speech. "Curses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost."

Proverbs 18:22. cf. the expansion of the idea in Sirach 26:1-3.

Proverbs 18:23. cf. Sirach 13:3.

Proverbs 18:24. Lit. "a man of friends is to be broken, and there is a lover that cleaveth closer than a brother." There is no satisfactory parallelism; the rendering is also very doubtful. With a slight change 24a reads, "There are friends whose object is society," implying a contrast between social acquaintances and the friendship tested by adversity. LXX omits.