01/15/10

Genesis 43-46

Genesis 43 starts with the continuing famine in Canaan.  Jacob's sons, other than Simeon, have returned, but the food they brought back is running out and Jacob implores them to go back to Egypt and buy more.  His sons resist, protesting that the overseer told them they would not see him again if they did not bring back their youngest brother.  Judah tells Jacob that he will stand as guarantor for Benjamin's safe return, and that he is willing to lay down his life if Benjamin does not come back.  Jacob relents, and the 10 brothers take the silver that was returned to them on their last trip and enough for purchase of more grain, and head to Egypt.  When Joseph sees them, he instructs his steward to prepare a meal for them at his residence.  They gather at Joseph's house, where Simeon is brought out to them.  Joseph sees Benjamin and inquires after their father, then retires to his private quarters to weep.  Then he came out and feasted with them. 

The story continues in chapter 44 when, following their feast, he has the stewards fill his brothers bags with grain.  He also has their silver placed back in the bags, and one of his own silver cups into Benjamin's bag.  His brothers head back to Canaan, but Joseph sends a his steward after them, and when he overtakes them, accuses them of having stolen a silver cup.  They deny it, and agree that if any one is found to have taken it, that one will become a slave to Joseph.  They all drop their bags and the steward finds the cup in Benjamin's.  They all go back to Joseph's house, where his brothers fall down and bow before him, acknowledging themselves as his slaves.  He says that only the one found with the cup is his slave, the rest are free to go.  Judah pleads with Joseph to keep him instead, as Benjamin is the youngest, the only remaining son of the wife their father loved, and the loss of him would kill their father.

Finally, in chapter 45, Joseph acknowledges his identity to his brothers.  He sends everyone else from the room, and tells his brothers who he is.  They are frightened, but he tells them not to be frightened and not to be angry, that they hadn't sent him into slavery, but GOD had sent him ahead into Egypt to prepare for the time of famine.  And after they all threw their arms around one another and wept, he told them to go back to Canaan and get their father.  Pharoah gave Joseph and his family the land of Goshen, so they took carts and donkeys and returned to Canaan where they told Jacob that Joseph was still alive and the ruler of Egypt.

In Genesis 46, we get a genealogy of Israel as it entered in to the land of Goshen at the behest of Pharoah.  After packing up, they headed towards Egypt.  At Beersheba, they stopped and Israel prayed to the LORD, who told him that he would bring him back out of Egypt.  The list of direct descendants of Israel, not counting sons' wives, is said to be 66, and, with Joseph and the two sons born to him in Egypt, 70.  They settle in, and tell Pharoah that they are shephards.

Thoughts, questions, issues
• I'm hesitant to call Joseph a jerk, and certainly they warranted some punishment for having sold their brother into slavery, regardless of how well it turned out, but his treatment of his brothers was cruel.  Keeping Simeon and then framing Benjamin were frightening and unpleasant acts.
• "Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.  He said to them, 'Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.'" (Gen 37:5-7)
  "Joseph was still in the house when Judah and his brothers came in, and they threw themselves to the ground before him." (Gen 44:14)
• When he finally acknowledges his identity, Joseph does demonstrate that he has handled his experience well.  Rather than recriminations, he expresses to them that GOD has sent him in to Egypt, that what has happened in his life has been done for GOD's purposes.
• The entire story of Joseph's exile to Egypt, his reconciliation with his brothers, their return with Israel to him, is as easily understandable as anything in Genesis, and much more so than most of it.  Even the actions of his brothers, selling him, is understandable, albeit reprehensible.  This whole section (excluding the Judah/Tamar interlude) is straightforward history.
• I count 71 male descendants, three of which (Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim) were already in Egypt and two of which (Er and Onan) were dead.  So that does make 66 that went down to Egypt.  And three makes 69, which is not exactly 70.

Proverbs 12:15-28

The last 14 verses in chapter 12 extol honesty, truthfulness and discretion, while condemning laziness, dishonesty and imprudence.  13 of the 14 are antithetical parallelisms.

01/12/10

Genesis 33-36

In Genesis 33, Jacob returns home.  He meets with his brother Esau, and they throw their arms around one another and reconcile.  Esau doesn't want the gifts of sheep and cattle, but Jacob insists.  They settle back into Canaan, with Jacob buying land from "Hamor, the father of Shechem."  "There he set up an altar and called it El Elohe Israel."

I said yesterday that Dinah had disappeared from the narrative, but she returns in chapter 34.  She is raped by Shechem, the son of Hamor.  His claims to be in love with her, and tells his father that he wants her for his wife.  Hamor tells Jacob, but Jacob's sons have found out what happened and are furious.  They deceitfully agree to intermarry with Hamor's people if, and only if, the men are all circumcised.  The "Hamorites" agree and all the men are circumcised.  Three days later, while the men are all recovering from the procedure, "still in pain," Simeon and Levi take their swords and kill every male in the city.  Then "the sons of Jacob" loot and plunder the city.  Jacob is upset, feeling that this will make it much harder and more dangerous for them to live there, but his sons think that doing otherwise would have meant allowing that their sister be treated as a prostitute.

Genesis 35 - God appears to Jacob and tells him to return to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar.  So he has his family give up all of their "foreign gods" and "rings in their ears" and he buries them "under the oak at Shechem."  The return to Bethel and Jacob builds an altar "and called the place El Bethel."  God again tells him that his name shall be Israel and that "a nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body.  The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you."

As they moved on from Bethel, Rachel went in to labor and struggled to give birth.  As she was dying, she named her new-born son Ben-Oni (son of my struggle) but Jacob called him Benjamin (son of my right hand.)  Rachel was buried.  Eventually, they return to Hebron.  Isaac "died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years."  Esau and Jacob buried him.

Chapter 36 lists the descendants of Esau, sometimes called Edom.  First, he and Jacob separated, much as Abram and Lot had done earlier, because the land could not support all of their wealth (livestock).  Then we get "the account of Esau the father of the Edomites."  Notable descendants are mentioned, as well as chiefs and kings of his line.

Thoughts, questions, issues
• Jacob deceived his father to get his older brothers blessing on the belief that his father was on his deathbed.  He then left the area and spent 20 years in Laban's service.  But when he comes back, not only does Esau greet him, Isaac is still alive.
• To save myself from repetitively apologizing for repeating myself, I'm going to define an acronym.  Whenever you see MSW, that's a "Modern Sensibilities Warning."  That means, "yes, I know that I'm looking at this particular issue through the lens of my chronological snobbery, and I'm aware of the potential for misunderstanding, or just plain missing, the point."
• The reference to Israel ("Shechem had done a disgraceful thing in [or against]] Israel") in 34:7 seems anachronistic.  That same chapter refers in every instance to "Jacob's sons" and "Jacob's daughter."
• MSW:  If he wants to marry the girl, why did Shechem "violate" here first?  Wouldn't it make more sense to wait?
• What is there in what has gone before to make anyone thing that the kind of behavior exhibited actually warranted retribution?  Lot offered his daughters to a mob.  Simeon and Levi were sons of Leah, but several of their brothers were the product of (MSW) rape.  (Certainly there's no reason to think that Bilhah and Zilpah had any input whatsoever in their bearing Jacob's children.)
• Sly and clever, I suppose, to deal with the Hamorites the way they did, but dishonest, too.
• There's an odd statement in the middle of chapter 35, saying that "Reuben went in and slept with his father's concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard of it."  There's no obvious connection between that comment and what precedes and follows it.  Presumably, there's a reason for it being there, but the placement seems very strange.
• There are, I believe, five sons listed by three wives.  Most of which are not names that I recognize.  And presumably, many, if not most, are not to be heard from again.
• The one notable name (to me) from the Esau genealogy was Amalek, who I presume was the father of the Amalekites.

We've now been introduced to the 12 tribes of Israel:

Sons of Leah
• Reuben
• Simeon
• Levi
• Judah
• Issachar
• Zebulun
Sons of Rachel
• Joseph
• Benjamin
Sons of Rachel's maidservant Bilhah
• Dan
• Naphtali
Sons of Leah's maidservant Zilpah
• Gad
• Asher

Proverbs 11:1-15

The themes continue to repeat.  Wisdom, following wisdom, righteous vs. wicked, speaking wisely, plainly and truthfully - it's difficult to summarize a set of 16 proverbs.  To the extent that they have a common theme, well, they don't.  There are some extolling honesty in this set.  Some extolling humility.  Others condemning gossip and praising the man of understanding who "holds his tongue."

01/08/2010

Genesis 21-23

Chapter 21 begins with the birth of Isaac, just as God had promised.  Abraham was a 100 year old new dad, and Sarah was a 90-something new mom.  But as Isaac was weaned, the friction between Sarah and Hagar increased.  Sarah begged Abraham to send them away, and God told Abraham to do what Sarah wanted, because it was "through Isaac that your offspring [b] will be reckoned."  Hagar and Ishmael went off through the desert, and when the water was gone, she left him under a bush to die.  But an Angel appeared and led them to water, so they survived and lived in the desert.  "God was with the boy as he grew up."  Abraham and Abimelech formed a treaty that Abraham (who had God's support) would "not deal falsely with me or my children or my descendants."

In chapter 22 God tested Abraham.  He instructed Abraham to take his son Isaac, through who he had promised to make a great nation, into the mountains and sacrifice him.  When Abraham was just about to do so, the Lord provided a ram to take his place, but Abraham had demonstrated his willingness to sacrifice his son.  The chapter ends with a couple of incongruous verses of genealogy about the sons borne to Milcah and Nahor.

Chapter 23 sees the death of Sarah at 127 years old, in Hebron in Canaan.  Abraham negotiated for the rights to the field of Ephron the Hittite in which to bury her, and "Ephron's field in Machpelah near Mamre...was deeded to Abraham as his property in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of the city."  He buried Sarah in the cave, and "the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site."

Thoughts, questions, issues
• Here's another thing about the Abraham/Abimelech story from chapter 20 - it feels out of place.  It seems as if it is stuck in to the middle of the Isaac story.  There's no reference to Hagar or Ishmael, no mention of God's promise.  It just doesn't seem to go between 19 and 21.
• I continue to think that the God of Abraham, as portrayed in these middle chapters of Genesis, does not come across as a God of love that created the universe and wants us to love and honor him.
• This is going to sound silly, but when I read God's demand that Abraham sacrifice his son, I'm reminded of James T. Kirk's question, "what need has God of a starship?"
• Abraham talked to God, saw visions of God, heard the word of God.  But when a message is as contrary to what you believe God to be as the message to sacrifice Isaac was, how do you trust it?  Human sacrifice was a pagan activity.
• I have no idea what the Milcah/Nahor genealogy is there for.  I have to assume that some of those names are going to come up again.
• There's a lot of emphasis in the last chapter about the land being Abraham's, being deeded to him, and the Hittites acknowledging it.

Proverbs 8

Thoughts, questions, issues

• Interesting to have "wisdom" speaking in first person, anthropomorphized.
• Fascinating to have wisdom predating creation, as "the LORD brought me forth as the first of his works."
• Other than that, there's not much of practical value here.  The passage is largely metaphorical, symbolic and poetic. 

¹ - Proverbs 8 in paragraph form:

Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?  On the heights along the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand; beside the gates leading into the city, at the entrances, she cries aloud:

"To you, O men, I call out; I raise my voice to all mankind.  You who are simple, gain prudence; you who are foolish, gain understanding.  Listen, for I have worthy things to say; I open my lips to speak what is right.  My mouth speaks what is true, for my lips detest wickedness.  All the words of my mouth are just; none of them is crooked or perverse.  To the discerning all of them are right; they are faultless to those who have knowledge.  Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.

"I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence; I possess knowledge and discretion.  To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. Counsel and sound judgment are mine; I have understanding and power. By me kings reign and rulers make laws that are just; by me princes govern, and all nobles who rule on earth.  I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.  With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity.  My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver.  I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing wealth on those who love me and making their treasuries full. 

", before his deeds of old; I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began.  When there were no oceans, I was given birth, when there were no springs abounding with water; before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, before he made the earth or its fields or any of the dust of the world.  I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.  Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind. 

"Now then, my sons, listen to me; blessed are those who keep my ways.  Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not ignore it.  Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway.  For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the LORD.  But whoever fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death."

01/04/2010

Genesis 10-11

At the end of chapter 9, the earth has been de-populated, as God washed away most of mankind in the flood. So the next step is repopulation. Chapter 10 is a genealogy chapter, listing the descendants of the sons of Noah. There's very little narrative, though it does contain the first mention of Nimrod, son of Cush, "a mighty hunter before the LORD." He is credited (though we might use that term advisedly) with establishing a kingdom in Babylon, and building the city of Nineveh. Each of those is a kingdom that will be viewed negatively by the people of God, so maybe "blamed" would be a more apt description than "credited."

And then, in chapter 11, the world re-populated promptly lapses again into sin. The story of the tower of Babel is, surprisingly for a story with such reknown and impact, only 9 verses long. And that's followed by more genealogy, as we get the line of descent from Shem to Abram.

And that is more than enough of the "book report" format.

Odds & ends
• Interesting to see the sons (Magog, Canaan, etc.) whose names appear later as places or tribes.
• A note at the biblegateway says that "sons may mean descendants or successors or nations" so I guess it isn't that interesting.
• Likewise, of course, "father may mean ancestor or predecessor or founder."
• In modern speech, "anti-semite" tends to refer only to hatred/dislike/discrimination against the Jewish people. But the Semitic people are the descendants of Shem, and most are not Jewish, as we're still several generations before the birth of Israel.
• Apparently, some traditions attribute the building of the tower of Babel to Nimrod. I wasn't aware of that, but it's not hard to see why. He has just been mentioned as one that built a powerful kingdom, "a mighty hunter before the LORD" doesn't mean the same thing as a mighty hunter for the LORD, and the names Babel and Babylon may be (apparently are) the same name. UPDATE: I've checked the Hebrew, and yes, the Babylon of chapter 10 and the Babel of chapter 11 are the same word. Exactly the same word, not just sharing a root, but exactly the same - Bet-Bet-Lamed.
• In a pattern that is to be repeated throughout the Old Testament, and indeed, human history on scales both great and small, punishment does not bring about permanent change. It has some immediate effects, but as time increases, past punishments lose their motivating impact. The first generation may be more-or-less permanently corrected, but sin creeps in to the second, and subsequent generations don't have any experience of the correction. It's just a story. Some are better preserved and more obviously true than others, as Edmund Burke said, "example is the school of mankind and they will learn at no other."
• Also, a "fallen" mankind, infected with "original sin," can not avoid continuing to sin.
• The story of the tower of Babel has a particularly unflattering portrait of God.
  

  And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

  We know that God is a "jealous" God (and I'll discuss that when I get to that usage), but rather than a punishment, this actually reads as a preemptive strike against a presumptive foe. As if mankind actually represents a threat to God's sovereignty.
• The postdeluvian numbers have changed significantly. In the genealogy from Adam to Noah, the sons were born to fathers aged 65 to 180. From Shem to Abram, the typical ages are 29-35. Shem was 100 and Terah was 70, but the rest are at what we would now consider typical ages for first children.
• Terah had three sons - Abram, Nahor and Haran. But Haran is clearly both a person (the son of Terah, brother of Nahor and Abram, father of Milcah and Iscah) and a place ("they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.")
• If the relationships are correct and complete (that is, there aren't intervening generations or unnamed persons involved) then Nahor married his niece. Obviously, this long predates the Levitical laws in which that would be forbidden. And I don't know when humanity would have grasped the biological fact of the problems associated with close blood relatives procreating.

Proverbs 4

I'll be honest - I'm not certain that I could tell chapter 3 and chapter 4 apart. As I said last time, there are an enormous number of individual "sayings" in this book, and many of them are saying exactly the same thing. Sometimes, the words are a little bit different, or ordered a little bit differently, but it would take a far more detailed examination of the book than I'm likely to do, including source and textual criticism, to wring out any more than the surface meanings.

For example, consider this passage from chapter three:

Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.

and this one from chapter four

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.

Not exactly the same, true. But not very different, either. It's hard to say that we've seen anything in these last two chapters other than exhortations to wisdom. Which is all well and good, and obviously it's better to be wise than otherwise¹, but once you've acknowledged that, are the additional poetic exhortations really helpful?

I suppose that this is a form issue. One of the things that we need to remember is that we're not reading Proverbs - we're reading an English translation of a 2500-3000 year-old Hebrew text. A text that was composed at a time when the printing press was not available. Many (most? all?) of the Old Testament books are arranged in verse form, rhythmic and/or rhyming to facilitate memorization. They are designed to be sung or chanted and memorized. So much of what we see as excessive poetry, excessive verbiage, is probably there to structure the message. In current parlance, it's formatting.




¹ - Which puts me in mind of what I once saw referred to as Carson's Law: "It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick."

² - And, like chapter three yesterday, here is chapter four in paragraph form:

Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also, and said unto me,

Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.

Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many. I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths. When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.

Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.

But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.

My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

01/03/2010

Before I get to today's reading, I need to make an update to yesterday's. I misread my schedule, and instead of reading Genesis 3-4, I should have read Genesis 3-5.

So a quick comment on chapter 5.

Chapter 5 contains the first (but certainly not the last) extended genealogy in the Old Testament. It was previewed at the end of chapter four with a brief genealogy of Cain to Lamech and his sons. But chapter 5 makes it explicit up-front - "this is the book of the generations of Adam [KJV]." (Or "this is the written account of Adam's line [NIV].")

Clearly, this passage is historical in nature. There is no poetry, almost nothing that can be taken as prophecy, or metaphor, or wisdom. The lineage of Adam to Noah:

Adam->Seth->Enos[h]->Cainan (or Kenan)->Mahalale[e]l->Jared->Enoch->Methuselah->Lamech->Noah.

So there are a couple of interesting things in this genealogy:

• In the line of Adam through Cain, back in chapter 4, we had Enoch and Methushael->Lamech. In the line of Adam through Seth, we have Enoch->Methuselah->Lamech. If we go to the Hebrew, names of Lamech's father are identical other than the last two characters. It may mean nothing, but it makes me wonder whether one of the lists might not be a corrupted version of the other.
• Enoch "walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away." Literally¹, "and-he-walked Enoch with the-God (elohim) then-he-was-not because he-took him God." So Enoch, alone of human beings recorded in the Bible, never died.
• Adam lived 930 years. Jared lived 962 years. Methuselah, 969. The nine generations from the birth of Seth to the birth of Noah spans 1056 years. Either people were very different back then, or the world was very different, or something is wrong with the dating. I don't have any idea why that would be. Somewhere, I ran across the idea that mankind was fresh from Eden, and they lived a life closer to the natural life-span God intended. My inclination is to believe that the years referred to in the list are not the same 365 day years that we talk about today. I have no evidence for that, none whatsoever. It's just what occurs to me as a likely reason.

Not as quick a comment as I had intended. Ah, well...

Genesis 6-9

I wonder if there's any better known story from the Bible than the story of Noah and the flood. It's been told so many times in so many ways that I wouldn't even know where to begin to try to add anything to it, and it's one of the most straightforward stories in the Bible. God "saw how corrupt the earth had become" and said, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth." Noah was a righteous man, did what God asked, and he and his family were saved, as well as two of every animal, male and female.

This is not the only version of the flood story in the ancient near-east. It is likely, overwhelmingly likely, in my opinion, that this is based on a historical event. But it also reads as a theodicy, a meditation on the nature and behavior of God.

• Who were the Nephilim?
• What is the distinction between "sons of God" and "daughters of men?"
• The covenant in chapter 9 is the first biblical covenant that we see. It won't be the last.
• If he only took two of each animal, what species are we missing because of the sacrifice after they landed?
• If I'd known that Ham was the father of Canaan (and I guess I must have, as I've read it before), I'd forgotten.

Proverbs 3

In some ways, Proverbs is a very easy book to read. It is filled with very short passages, one or two lines, that express an idea. Many are of the form, "do this and good things will happen," or, "do this and punishment will ensue." But it's hard to read as a book, or to summarize, because it seems to be very disjoint and repetitive. There is no narrative flow, and it is difficult to actually get anything out of more than a small chunk. Which is probably why the schedule only has one chapter of it every day. It's still almost too much.

In some places, I find it easier to deal with in paragraph form. Chapter three combines pretty nicely into five paragraphs².

1-4: Imploring the reader not to forget the the teaching, for they will bring prosperity and help win favor in the sight of God and man.
5-12: Trust in the LORD, honor the LORD, fear the LORD and shun evil. Don't despise the LORD's discipline for he disciplines those he loves, "as a father the son he delights in."
13-20: Blessing for those who find wisdom, for "she" is "more precious than rubies," her ways are pleasant and her paths are peace. "By wisdom the LORD laid the earth's foundations."
21-26: Again, preserve the teaching of wisdom and it will benefit you in all you do.27-35: Negative recommendations - don't withhold good when it is in your power to act. The LORD "detests a perverse man but takes the upright into his confidence."

• In Genesis, the LORD is Elohim. In Proverbs, the LORD is YHWH. (Yahweh, Jehovah - the tetragrammaton.)
• Verse 13 is a beatitude. "Blessed is the man...for..." Jesus used this form in his teaching, most extensively in Matthew 5.

¹ - The Interlinear NIV Hebrew-English Old Testament, John H. Kohlenberger III


² -

My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity. Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine. My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father [b] the son he delights in.

Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed. By wisdom the LORD laid the earth's foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; by his knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew.

My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight; they will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck. Then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble; when you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared.

Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act. Do not say to your neighbor, "Come back later; I'll give it tomorrow"— when you now have it with you. Do not plot harm against your neighbor, who lives trustfully near you. Do not accuse a man for no reason when he has done you no harm. Do not envy a violent man or choose any of his ways, for the LORD detests a perverse man but takes the upright into his confidence. The LORD's curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous. He mocks proud mockers but gives grace to the humble. The wise inherit honor, but fools he holds up to shame.