12:11a The words of the wise are like goads,

Words from wise people are like sharp sticks used to guide animals. (New Century Version)
-or-
The sayings of those who are wise move people to take action. (New International Reader’s Version)
-or-
The words of the wise are like cattle prods—painful but helpful. (New Living Translation (2004))

12:11b and the anthologies of the masters are like firmly embedded nails

And their collected proverbs are like nails firmly driven ⌊into the wall/wood⌋ .
-or-
Their collected sayings are like nails pounded in firm and deep. (New International Reader’s Version)
-or-
The proverbs the wise collected are like nails driven in completely ⌊and thus hold tight⌋ .

12:11c driven by a single Shepherd.

These sayings are given to us by one shepherd. (New International Reader’s Version)
-or-
One shepherd gives ⌊those words to us⌋ .

12:11a-c (combined)

Words from the wise are like sharp sticks ⌊that help to guide the sheep where they should go⌋ . When these sayings are written down and saved, they are nails pounded in firm and deep. It is one shepherd who gave ⌊us these wise proverbs⌋ .
-or-
Words of wisdom are like the stick a farmer uses to make animals move. All these sayings come from one shepherd, and they are like nails that fasten things together.

© 2006 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.