Proverbs 18:7-9 New English Translation
7 The mouth of a fool is his ruin,
and his lips are a snare for his life.[a]
8 The words of a gossip[b] are like choice morsels;[c]
and they have gone down into the person’s innermost being.[d]
9 The one who[e] is slack[f] in his work
is a brother[g] to one who destroys.[h]
Footnotes
- Proverbs 18:7 tn Heb “his soul” (so KJV, NASB, NIV).sn What a fool says can ruin him. Calamity and misfortune can come to a person who makes known his lack of wisdom by what he says. It may be that his words incite anger, or merely reveal stupidity; in either case, he is in trouble.
- Proverbs 18:8 tn Or “slanderer”; KJV, NAB “talebearer”; ASV, NRSV “whisperer.”
- Proverbs 18:8 tn The word כְּמִתְלַהֲמִים (kemitlahamim) occurs only here (and 26:22 where the verse is repeated verbatim). It is related to a cognate verb meaning “to swallow greedily,” so here “things swallowed greedily,” meaning food delicacies. Earlier English versions took it from a Hebrew root הָלַם (halam, see the word לְמַהֲלֻמוֹת [lemahalumot] in v. 6) meaning “wounds” (so KJV) or reflexively for the Hitpael as “self-inflicted wounds.” But the translation of “choice morsels” seems to fit the next image of going into the belly better. But that could also show the extent of wounds.
- Proverbs 18:8 tn Heb “they have gone down [into] the dark/inner chambers of the belly”; NASB “of the body.” sn When the choice morsels of gossip are received, they go down like delicious food—into the innermost being; they have been too easily believed. R. N. Whybray says, “There is a flaw in human nature that assures slander will be listened to” (Proverbs [CBC], 105).
- Proverbs 18:9 tn Heb “Also, the one who.” Many commentators and a number of English versions omit the word “also.”
- Proverbs 18:9 tn The form מִתְרַפֶּה (mitrappeh) is the Hitpael participle, “showing oneself slack.” The verb means “to sink; to relax,” and in the causative stem “to let drop” the hands. This is the lazy person who does not even try to work.
- Proverbs 18:9 sn These two troubling types, the slacker and the destroyer, are closely related.
- Proverbs 18:9 tn Heb “possessor of destruction.” This idiom means “destroyer” (so ASV); KJV “a great waster”; NRSV “a vandal.”
New English Translation (NET)
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