Paragraph 24:13–14 Saying 26

In this saying, the teacher advises his son to gain wisdom. He advises this by first describing the benefits of eating honey (13a–b). He then compares the similar benefits of wisdom (14a). He concludes that a person who gains wisdom can look forward with certainty to a good future (14b–c). See the General Comment on 24:13–14 after the note on 24:14b–c for a way to reorder the verses in this saying.

24:13

Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:

13a Eat honey, my son, for it is good,

13b
and the honeycomb is sweet to your taste.

24:13a–b

Eat honey…for it is good, and the honeycomb is sweet to your taste: The command Eat honey is followed by parallel reasons why the son should obey this command. Most English versions introduce the first reason with a word such as for or “because” (New Century Version). They do not use a specific word to introduce the second reason.

In some languages, it may be more natural to introduce both reasons without a specific word. For example:

My child, eat honey; it is good. (Good News Translation)

Honey from the honeycomb tastes sweet. (New Century Version)

Use a natural way in your language to introduce these reasons.

honey…honeycomb: The word honeycomb further describes honey in the first line. It refers to honey in the honeycomb. People considered this honey to be especially desirable. Some other ways to translate the second term are:

honey that drips from the comb (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
the drippings of the honeycomb (English Standard Version)
-or-
the honeycomb (Revised English Bible)

good…sweet to your taste: The word good refers in general to honey’s beneficial qualities. It includes enjoyable taste as well as benefits to health. The parallel phrase is literally “sweet on your palate.” It focuses specifically on the taste of honey. Some other ways to translate the second phrase are:

sweet on your tongue (Good News Translation)
-or-
tastes sweet

24:13a

my son: See how you translated this phrase in 23:15. In that verse, the Berean Standard Bible put the phrase at the beginning of the sentence. You should put it wherever it is natural in your language.

General Comment on 24:13a–b

In some languages, it may be more natural to combine and/or reorder one or more of the parallel parts. For example:

My child, eat honey, because it has benefits and is also sweet/delicious.

© 2012, 2016, 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.