SIL Translator’s Notes on Proverbs 2:10

2:10

Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:

10a For wisdom will enter your heart,

10b and knowledge will delight your soul.

2:10a–b

For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will delight your soul: This verse explains why the person who searches for wisdom will know how to do what is right. It is because he will indeed become wise. This wisdom/knowledge will also give him great joy. Some English versions, such as the Berean Standard Bible, introduce this explanation with the word For. For example:

for wisdom will sink into your mind (Revised English Bible)

Other versions leave this connection implied. For example:

Wisdom will control your mind (Contemporary English Version)

Introduce this explanation in a natural way in your language.

2:10a

wisdom will enter your heart: For heart, see the note on 2:2a–b. The heart represents the center of a person’s inner life. It is a figure of speech (synecdoche) that represents the whole person. For wisdom to enter a person’s heart is equivalent to a person becoming wise. For example:

You will become wise (Good News Translation)

2:10b

knowledge will delight your soul: The word knowledge here has essentially the same meaning as “wisdom.” The word soul, like the word “heart,” is a figure of speech (synecdoche) that represents the whole person. The word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as delight means “pleasing” or “attractive.” Other ways to translate this clause are:

knowledge will be pleasing to you (New Century Version)
-or-
your knowledge will give you pleasure (Good News Translation)

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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.

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