אֱמֶ֣ת קְ֭נֵה וְאַל־תִּמְכֹּ֑ר חָכְמָ֖ה וּמוּסָ֣ר וּבִינָֽה׃
23Buy truth, and do not sell it;
buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.
The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “sell” in English is translated in Noongar as wort-bangal or “away-barter.” Note that “buy” is translated as bangal-barranga or “get-barter.” (Source: Bardip Ruth-Ang 2020)
See also buy and buying / selling.
The Hebrew, Aramaic, Ge’ez, Latin, and Greek that is translated as “wisdom” in English is rendered in various ways:
In Hungarian Sign Language it is translated with a hand gesture referring to God to indicate a human quality to communicate that wisdom does not originate from man but is linked to and connected with the fear of God (source: Jenjelvi Biblia and HSL Bible Translation Group):
“Wisdom” in Hungarian Sign Language (source )
See also wisdom (Proverbs) and knowledge.
In the Tzeltal translation for the dialectal variant of Highland Tzeltal (Biblia Tzeltal yu’un Oxchuc soc Tenejapa, 2001) the translation team used three different words to translate the Hebrew term that is translated as “wisdom” in English. For the verses referenced here, it uses p’ijil c’op or “word wisdom.”
For the complete story and more background, please see wisdom (Proverbs).
See also buy wisdom.
Nida (1947, p. 230) says this about the translation of the concept of “truth”: “The words for ‘truth’ and ‘true’ are not always the most readily discovered in aboriginal languages. In some instances the only expression which corresponds to ‘true’ is something like ‘it happened.’ A falsehood is something that ‘did not happen.’ In a good many languages the meaning of ‘truth’ is expressed by the words signifying ‘straight’ and ‘direct.’ Untruth is accordingly ‘crookedness.’ An abstract noun such as English “truth” is quite difficult to find in some instances. Only an expression such as ‘true statement’ or ‘true word’ will be found to correspond to English ‘truth.’”
The Greek, Latin, Ge’ez, and Hebrew that is usually translated in English as “truth” is translated in Luchazi with vusunga: “the quality of being straight” (source: E. Pearson in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 160ff. ), in Obolo as atikọ or “good/correct talk” (source: Enene Enene), and in Ekari as maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (esp. in John 14:6 and 17; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).
Helen Evans (in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) tells of the translation into Kui which usually is “true-thing.” In some instances however, such as in the second part of John 17:17 (“your word is truth” in English), the use of “true-thing” indicated that there might be other occasions when it’s not true, so here the translation was a a form of “pure, holy.”
The translation committee of the Malay “Good News Bible” (Alkitab Berita Baik, see here ) wrestled with the translation of “truth” in the Gospel of John:
“Our Malay Committee also concluded that ‘truth’ as used in the Gospel of John was used either of God himself, or of God’s revelation of himself, or in an extended sense as a reference to those who had responded to God’s self-disclosure. In John 8:32 the New Malay translation reads ‘You will know the truth about God, and the truth about God will make you free.’ In John 8:44 this meaning is brought out by translating, ‘He has never been on the side of God, because there is no truth in him.’ Accordingly Jesus ‘tells the truth about God’ in 8:45, 46 (see also 16:7 and 8:37a). Then, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ (John 14:6) becomes ‘I am the one who leads men to God, the one who reveals who and what God is, and the one who gives men life.” At 3:21 the translation reads ” … whoever obeys the truth, that is God himself, comes to the light …’; 16:13a appears as ‘he will lead you into the full truth about God’; and in 18:37 Jesus affirms ‘I came into the world to reveal the truth about God, and whoever obeys God listens to me.’ On this basis also 1:14 was translated ‘we saw his glory, the glory which he had as the Father’s only Son. Through him God has completely revealed himself (truth) and his love for us (grace)’; and 1:17 appears as ‘God gave the law through Moses; but through Jesus Christ he has completely revealed himself (truth) and his love for us (grace).'” (Source: Barclay Newman in The Bible Translator 1974, p. 432ff. )
The German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) has followed a somewhat similar path to the Malay committee 50 years earlier in the gospel of John. In John 1 it translates “truth as “God’s nature,” in John 3 as “God’s will,” in John 8 as “God’s reality,” in John 14 as “encountering God,” and in John 16 as “God’s truth.”
In the Tzeltal translation for the dialectal variant of Highland Tzeltal (Biblia Tzeltal yu’un Oxchuc soc Tenejapa, 2001) the translation team used three different words to translate the Hebrew term that is translated as “wisdom” in English. One of them is p’ijil jol or “word wisdom” which is also used for “understanding,” good sense,” “intelligent,” or “insight.”
For the complete story and more background, please see wisdom (Proverbs).
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 23:23:
“Buy truth, and do not sell it”: Some commentators feel that this verse does not belong here, and suggest moving it to some other place. It is absent from the text of the Septuagint, but there is no sign of any problem in the Hebrew text as we have it. And the theme of gaining wisdom and other good qualities is linked with obeying and learning from parents in other parts of Proverbs. The first verb “Buy” has the more general meaning of “get” or “acquire”; it is only because of the second verb “sell” that it is rendered “Buy”. But the verb “sell” has a figurative meaning, since truth and the other nouns in the second line cannot really be bought or sold. The sense of the line, in plain terms, is something like “Get truth, and do not part with it.” An example of a translation in a language that is unable to use “buy” and “sell” figuratively is “Try hard to get understanding of what is true and of good thinking and of all kinds of wisdom. Don’t throw away these good things.” For “truth” see 8.7.
“Buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding”: There is no verb in the Hebrew of this line. Some versions combine the two lines and translate “Buy truth, and do not sell wisdom, instruction, and understanding” (Scott) or “Invest in truth and wisdom, discipline and good sense, and don’t part with them” (Contemporary English Version). Bible en français courant adjusts the two lines of the verse by saying “Learn to be truthful, thoughtful, disciplined, and intelligent. When you have acquired these qualities, don’t waste them.” Most, however, follow Revised Standard Version in repeating the verb “buy” or “get” from the first line. Refer to 1.2 for “wisdom”, “instruction”, and “understanding”.
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 .
23:23
Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:
23a
Invest in truth and never sell it—
23b
in wisdom and instruction and understanding.
See the General Comment on 23:23a–b for other ways to arrange the parallel lines.
This verse does not make explicit the source of the truth, wisdom, discipline, and understanding. However, in the context of the other verses in this saying, the implied source is primarily the parents of the young man.
23:23a
Invest in truth and never sell it: This is a metaphor that compares gaining and keeping the truth to buying and not selling merchandise. If a person is willing to give up his money to buy something and he is not willing to sell it again, it implies that what he bought is very valuable. Similarly, the son is advised here to make every effort to learn the truth and to not forget or reject it.
In many languages, it will not be possible to speak of “buying/investing” and “selling” abstract qualities such as truth or wisdom. If that is true in your language, you may use other terms that imply the value of truth and the other qualities that are mentioned here. For example:
Invest in truth and wisdom…and don’t part with them.
Do everything possible to learn what is true. Be careful to never reject it. (Contemporary English Version)
Invest: In Hebrew, this word often means “get” or “acquire.” It is also commonly used to mean “buy.”
23:23b
in wisdom and instruction and understanding: These three things are all closely related to “truth” in 23:23a. They are also mentioned together in 1:2. See the notes there. A different Hebrew verb is used in that verse, but the meaning is similar.
in wisdom: In Hebrew, there is no verb in 23:23b. Many English versions have supplied a verb (“buy” or “get”) in 23:23a from the Hebrew verb “buy/invest,” in 23:23b. The Berean Standard Bible implies the word “invest” at the beginning of this verse part. For example:
Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding (New International Version)
-or-
Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding. (English Standard Version)
-or-
Invest in truth and never sell it—⌊invest⌋ in wisdom and instruction and understanding. (Berean Standard Bible)
The command to “get/buy/invest in wisdom” means “become wise.” As in other verses in Proverbs, wisdom involves both knowledge and action. A person who has wisdom understands what will lead to a good result and acts accordingly.
instruction: In this context, the word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as instruction refers to moral instruction or training. The command to “get/buy/invest in instruction” means “learn what is taught.”
understanding: The command to “get/buy/invest in understanding” means “develop the ability to correctly understand the meaning.”
General Comment on 23:23a–b
Some English versions arrange the parallel parts as the Berean Standard Bible has done. They have the positive and negative commands to “buy/invest in” and “not sell” the truth in the first line. They put the other three things in the second line. For example:
23a Buy truth and do not sell it;
23b buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding. (English Standard Version)
Other versions reorder the parallel parts so that all four things occur together. For example:
Truth, wisdom, learning, and good sense—these are worth paying for, but too valuable for you to sell. (Good News Translation)
Notice that the Good News Translation puts both commands in the last part of the verse. The Contemporary English Version (see the quote in 23:23a) puts one command at the beginning and the other command at the end.
You may use any of these options. The positive and negative commands reinforce the same meaning. Within the parallel lines, they refer equally to truth, wisdom, instruction, and understanding.
© 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.
No comments yet.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.