Translation commentary on Proverbs 18:1

“He who is estranged seeks pretexts”: As the Revised Standard Version footnote shows, “estranged” renders the Hebrew for “separated,” and “pretexts” translates the Greek and Vulgate texts where the Hebrew has “desire.” A person who is “estranged” or “separated” is likely to be someone who has been put out of his community or has voluntarily withdrawn from it. Toy takes the subject of this line to refer to a person who keeps himself separated or holds himself aloof from his friends or from society. Scott calls him “an unsociable man.” The Hebrew of “seeks pretexts” is very doubtful and Hebrew Old Testament Text Project rates it as “C.” However, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project interprets the Hebrew term “desire” to refer to greed or pleasure, and recommends translating the line “A man who keeps to himself seeks his own pleasure.” This thought is followed closely by Good News Translation. Bible en français courant has “The one who looks only to his own interest isolates himself from others.” We may also translate, for example, “A person who thinks only of himself does not make many friends.”

“To break out against all sound judgment”: Revised Standard Version makes the two lines into one clause by the words “to break out”. The Hebrew has “he breaks out.” The verb rendered “break out” is the same as used in 17.14, where Revised Standard Version translates “the quarrel breaks out”; however, here the sense is to “bare the teeth at” (“snarling at” in New Living Translation), “defy” (New International Version), or “have contempt for.” The word rendered “sound judgment” was first used in 2.7, where Revised Standard Version translated it “sound wisdom.” The thought expressed in this line is that the unsociable person quarrels or disagrees with people of good judgment or good sense. Revised English Bible says “he quarrels with every sound policy.” New Revised Standard Version translates the full saying: “The one who lives alone is self-indulgent, showing contempt for all who have sound judgment.”

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 .

complete verse (Proverbs 18:1)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 18:1:

  • Kupsabiny: “A person who isolates himself is selfish,
    and he sneers at every good decision.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “A loner cares only about himself.
    He does not even heed the true words of others.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “A man who just always want to be alone only thinks of himself, and he is against the right/positive thinking of others.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The person who does not know how to companion-with his fellow people, it is only himself (lit. his body) that he thinks-about. He opposes everything that is right in the viewpoint of others.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • English: “Those who separate themselves from other people think only about those things that they are interested in;
    if they would continually associate with those who have good judgment/sense, they would constantly disagree/quarrel with them.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

SIL Translator’s Notes on Proverbs 18:1

18:1

Notice the parallelism:

1a
He who isolates himself pursues selfish desires ;

1b
he rebels against all sound judgment.

These parallel lines describe an antisocial person in two ways. Such a person always tries to fulfill his own desires. He also vigorously opposes the sensible guidelines that others in his community follow.

18:1a

He who isolates himself: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as He who isolates himself is literally “one who separates himself.” This word probably refers to people who deliberately act in an unfriendly or antisocial way. As a result, they become isolated or alienated from others. This word probably does not refer to people who live by themselves through no fault of their own. Other ways to translate this word are:

Unfriendly people (New Century Version)
-or-
People who do not get along with others (Good News Translation)
-or-
One who has isolated himself (NET Bible)

pursues selfish desires: There is a textual issue involving the word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as selfish desires :

(1) The Masoretic Text has a word that means “desires.” With this text, this line means that the unfriendly person selfishly tries to fulfill his own desires. For example:

seeks his own desires (NET Bible)

(2) The LXX and Vulgate have a word that means “pretexts.” With this text, this line means that the unfriendly person looks for opportunities ⌊to quarrel with others⌋ . For example:

seeks pretexts (Revised Standard Version)

It is recommended that you follow option (1), along with most versions and scholars.

Some other ways to translate the phrase pursues selfish desires are:

care only about themselves (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
is self-indulgent (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
are selfish (New Century Version)

18:1b

he rebels against all sound judgment: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as rebels is literally “breaks out.” For example:

he breaks out against all sound judgment (English Standard Version)

This verb occurs only three times in the OT. The other two verses are also in Proverbs (17:14 and 20:3). In the other two verses, it refers to starting a quarrel or fight. Here it probably means “to oppose or refuse to obey.”

sound judgment: In this context, sound judgment probably refers to sensible policies, guidelines, or advice that others in society think are wise. Other ways to translate this line are:

sound policy (Revised English Bible)
-or-
advice of any kind (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
what everyone else knows is right (Good News Translation)

© 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.