This saying expresses the importance of mastering persuasive speech—not only the style of speaking, but the knowledge of knowing the right time to speak.

“To make an apt answer is a joy to a man”: This line says literally “There is joy to a man in the answer of his mouth.” It is probably assumed that the person who experiences joy from his response has given an appropriate reply to what the other person said. For “answer” see 15.1. For “joy” see “glad” in 15.13. We may render this line, for example, “It is pleasant to be able to give a good reply” or “It brings pleasure to a person who answers another person well.”

“And a word in season, how good it is!”: “Word” parallels “answer” and refers to a word, utterance, or saying. “In season” is literally “in its time” meaning “spoken at the right time” and refers to something said that is fully appropriate to the situation. “How good it is” may need to be placed at the beginning of the line, for example, “How effective it is when something is spoken at the right moment!” Alternatively “how good it is” may be expressed at the end of the line: “A word spoken at just the right moment is very effective.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

This saying again parallels and contrasts the first line with the second.

“Wisdom is a fountain of life to him who has it”: For “a fountain of life” see the comments on 10.11. The Hebrew is literally “Fountain of life insight [of] its owner,” and this is somewhat obscure. Good News Translation takes “him who has it” to refer to “the wise,” and this is probably the intended sense. As in 10.11, it may be necessary to express “a fountain of life” as a simile; for example, “For the wise person wisdom is like a life-giving fountain.”

“But folly is the chastisement of fools”: “Folly” contrasts with “Wisdom” and “chastisement” contrasts with “fountain of life”. For “folly” see 5.23 and 12.23. “Chastisement” renders a Hebrew word often translated “instruction,” but in this context it means “punishment.” In 13.24 the same Hebrew word is translated “discipline” (Revised Standard Version) and “correct” (Good News Translation). The sense of the second line is that fools are punished by their own foolishness. Good News Translation takes this line to mean that it is foolish to try to teach fools. This is followed by New Living Translation, but it is not widely accepted. Contemporary English Version translates the saying: “Good sense is a fountain that gives life, but fools are punished by their foolishness.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

“A stupid son is a grief to a father”: This line begins literally “The one who fathers a fool. . ..” “A stupid son” renders the commonly used word for “fool.” It occurs some fifty times in Proverbs and means someone who is slow-witted intellectually, as well as morally inadequate. Note that Good News Translation shifts to the plural “children.” “Grief”, the same word as in 14.13, means “sorrow” or “sadness,” the opposite of joy. Although “a father” in this line is masculine singular, many translators prefer to be inclusive and plural. Revised English Bible has “Stupid offspring bring sorrow to parents.”

“And the father of a fool has no joy”: This line is identical in sense to the first line. The word “fool” here translates a different Hebrew word and some argue that the word in this line refers to someone who is a fool in the religious sense, that is, a person who thinks in a wrong and foolish way about God. However, there is no evidence to show that a difference in meaning is intended. “Has . . . joy” represents the same Hebrew verb used in 10.1, where it is rendered “makes . . . glad.”

It may be desirable in some languages to speak of “father” in both lines as “parent” or “elders,” or even to reduce the two lines to one, as in Good News Translation. Some translations, like Revised Standard Version, keep “father” in both lines. Others have “father” in the first line and “parents” in the second. All of these are possible.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

“Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity”: This line is identical with 28.6a. “Walks in his integrity” is used in 2.7 without the pronoun. See there for comments and translation.

“Than a man who is perverse in speech, and is a fool”: “Perverse in speech” is literally “crooked in his lips.” “Perverse” renders the same verb used in 11.20, where it is applied to the mind, literally “the heart.” “Perverse in speech” means to be a liar, to tell untruths. Many interpreters consider “a fool” to be inappropriate here and change the word to one meaning “rich,” as in 28.6b. This gives a better parallel with “a poor man” in line 1. Revised English Bible translates “Better to be poor and above reproach than rich and double-tongued.” Note, however, that Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation keep “a fool” and this is recommended to translators. Contemporary English Version translates “It is better to be poor and live right than to be a stupid liar.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

The topic of this saying is people who are lazy and the loss that they suffer as a consequence of their laziness. The picture in this instance is of a farmer who neglects to prepare his ground for sowing at the appropriate time.

“The sluggard does not plow”: For “sluggard” see 6.6. The verb “plow” may not be understood in some parts of the world where people are not familiar with this agricultural practice. If this is the case we may speak of breaking up the ground or digging the ground to prepare it for the planting of crops. One translation says, for example, “The lazy person doesn’t go to break the ground in his garden.”

The sense of “in the autumn” depends on an understanding of the climate and the agricultural cycle in the land of ancient Israel. There are two seasons in the eastern Mediterranean area, a hot dry summer from May to September and a cool moderately rainy season from October to April, which is the season referred to as “autumn” here. In the time of the Old Testament, harvesting of the various crops took place over the months from April to September and then plowing for the following growing season was done as soon as the hardened soil was softened by “the early rains” falling in October or November. While “autumn” or “at the onset of winter” (Scott) makes sense in some European countries, it will probably not convey the essential meaning to readers who are unfamiliar with the eastern Mediterranean area. Hence New Revised Standard Version and New International Version say “in season,” meaning “at the appropriate time of the year.” Good News Translation has simply “at the right time,” which may be a good model for some translators to follow. Contemporary English Version says only “too lazy to plow,” which gets the overall meaning of the saying (“no pain, no gain”) but does not translate the sense of plowing at the time when it should be done; this is not recommended to translators.

There may be a problem in this saying for some translators, because there is no mention of sowing or planting a crop. We have to assume that plowing in this context includes planting as well; but it may be necessary to make this clear in some languages. One translation, for example, says “The lazy person doesn’t break up his ground at the time for planting food”; another has “The person who is too tired to plant his garden at the right time. . ..”

“He will seek at harvest and have nothing”: This is the obvious consequence of the first line and makes the saying complete. English versions mostly render “seek” as “looks [for a crop]”; some, like Good News Translation, leave this element to be understood by their readers and just say, for example, “at harvest time there is nothing” or “he has nothing to harvest.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

There are two parallel lines in this verse, each expressing similar meaning. The verse states what is a natural law of society, that people who are poor and who have to borrow are dependent on those who have the wealth.

“The rich rules over the poor”: “The rich” and “the poor” are the same common terms as in verse 2. “Rules over” means to have power or authority over someone. Many versions have “rule,” but alternatives in English are “dominates” (Scott) and “lords it over” (New Jerusalem Bible). Some translations restructure the first line to match the second line, and say, for example, “The poor are ruled by the rich” (Contemporary English Version) or “Poor people are slaves of the rich” (Good News Translation).

“And the borrower is the slave of the lender”: The terms “borrower” and “lender” are both forms of the verb “to borrow” in Hebrew; the “lender” is literally “one who causes to borrow.” The strong term “slave” can have the sense of either “slave” or “servant”; but it probably has a figurative rather than a literal meaning here; that is, the person who borrows money has an obligation to the lender and does not literally become the lender’s slave. Some translations render the figure of speech as a simile; for example, “and people who take loans are like slaves to those who lend.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

“Do not remove an ancient landmark”: See the comments on the first line of 22.28.

“Or enter the fields of the fatherless”: This line is parallel in thought, but not in form, with the previous line. “Enter” is the Hebrew word used frequently for “go” and “come”; but the context here shows that it means to “encroach on” (New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible) or “take over” (Good News Translation) land that belongs to “the fatherless”, that is, to orphans, those who have no family head to protect their interests.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .