Proverbs 18:3-5 New English Translation

³When a wicked person^[a] arrives, contempt^[b] shows up with him,^[c]
and with shame comes^[d] a reproach.
⁴The words of a person’s mouth^[e] are like^[f] deep waters,^[g]
and^[h] the fountain of wisdom^[i] is like^[j] a flowing brook.^[k]
⁵It is terrible^[l] to show partiality^[m] to the wicked,^[n]
by depriving^[o] a righteous man of justice.

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Footnotes

Proverbs 18:3 tc The MT has “a wicked [person].” Many commentators emend the text to רֶשַׁע (reshaʿ, “wickedness”) which makes better parallelism with “shame” (W. McKane, Proverbs [OTL], 521; R. B. Y. Scott, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes [AB], 112; C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 355; cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV). However, there is no external evidence for this emendation.
Proverbs 18:3 sn “Contempt” (בּוּז, buz) accompanies the wicked; “reproach” (חֶרְפָּה, kherpah) goes with shame. This reproach either further characterizes the behaviors expected of the wicked or possibly the critical rebukes and taunts of the community against a wicked person.
Proverbs 18:3 tn Heb “contempt also comes/has come.” The verb form בָּא (baʾ) may either be a perfect verb “has come” (cf. Prov 11:2) or a participle “comes.”
Proverbs 18:3 tn The term “comes” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.
Proverbs 18:4 tc The LXX reads “in a person’s heart,” probably conforming to the near parallel in Prov 20:5.
Proverbs 18:4 tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.
Proverbs 18:4 sn The metaphor “deep waters” indicates either that the words have an inexhaustible supply or that they are profound. Keil and Delitzsch see the second line as two more characteristics of the man’s words rather than as a second sentence, i.e., a person’s words are: deep waters, a bubbling brook, a fountain of wisdom. The “bubbling brook” would refer to the supply and “deep waters” to their insightfulness, or what is beneath the surface. See also Prov 20:5 for the metaphor “deep waters.”
Proverbs 18:4 tn There is debate about the nature of the parallelism between lines 4a and 4b. The major options are: (1) synonymous parallelism, (2) antithetical parallelism (e.g., NAB, NIV, NCV) or (3) formal parallelism. Normally a vav (ו) would begin an antithetical clause; the structure and the ideas suggest that the second colon continues the idea of the first half, but in a parallel way rather than as additional predicates. The metaphors used in the proverb elsewhere describe the wise.
Proverbs 18:4 sn This is an implied comparison (hypocatastasis), the fountain of wisdom being the person who speaks. The Greek version has “fountain of life” instead of “wisdom,” probably influenced from 10:11.
Proverbs 18:4 tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.
Proverbs 18:4 sn The point of this metaphor is that the wisdom is a continuous source of refreshing and beneficial ideas.
Proverbs 18:5 tn Heb “not good.” This is a figure known as tapeinosis, a deliberate understatement to emphasize a worst-case scenario: “it is terrible!”
Proverbs 18:5 tn The idiom “lifting up the face of” (שְׂאֵת פְּנֵי, s^eʾet p^ene) means “to show partiality” in decisions (e.g., Deut 10:17; Mal 2:9); cf. CEV, NLT “to favor.” The verbal form is the Qal infinitive construct from נָשָׂא (nasaʾ), which functions as the subject of the clause.
Proverbs 18:5 tn Or “the guilty,” since in the second colon “righteous” can also be understood in contrast as “innocent” (cf. NRSV, TEV, NLT).
Proverbs 18:5 tn Heb “to turn aside” (so ASV); NASB “to thrust aside.” The second half of the verse may illustrate this reprehensible action. The Hiphil infinitive construct לְהַטּוֹת (l^ehattot) may serve either (1) as result, “showing partiality…so that the righteous are turned away,” or (2) as epexegetical infinitive, “showing partiality…by turning the righteous away.” The second is preferred in the translation. Depriving the innocent of their rights is a perversion of justice.

New English Translation (NET)