Proverbs 29 – 30

Verse 29:3 talks about the adult children we all are during our lives:

An adult who loves wisdom and follows its ways gives his parents joy,
    but one who hangs out with women of the street will lose everything.

Interesting how so often proverbs and other teachings talk about children bringing joy to their parents, but rarely do they explore adult relationships with parents. With the age of emails and cell phones I can remain in contact with my parents daily, if they would get hip with Facebook, Instagram and other social medial it would be even easier. Now just because we can remain in contact is not always the source of joy, but I hope we as adults can bring a smile to our parents face.

Verse 29:7 talks about “benevolence”:

The just get involved with the poor and know their issues,
    but the wicked cannot comprehend such concerns.

We tend to dismiss the poor so often and step over them beggar on the way to the store. When in reality God says there will always be the poor and we must help them. We do not need to become all consumed with their wellbeing, but we should focus on at least helping when we can. How often I have heard they can help themselves and people turn away. Heck there are stories of well of beggars who make good money on street corners, hardening our hearts to those in need. No we need to follow the holy spirit and sometimes get dirty in helping those in need.

Verse 29:11 has me wanting to look at other translations:

A fool does not think before he unleashes his temper,
    but a wise man holds back and remains quiet.

I always like the italics in The Voice since they are additional words not translated directly from the original. The CJB version is my OT go to and says “ but the wise, thinking of afterwards, stills them.” The wording the voice uses does a good job of clarifying the meaning in this case. I like to see that since the concern with many translations is accuracy to the spirit of the original text.

Verse 30:18 reminds me of Monty Python’s Spanish Inquisition skit:

There are three mysteries I find absolutely amazing,
    no, make it four I cannot comprehend:

We saw this same thing in Amos 1:13 where the writer says 3 no 4, like the cardinals in the skit. I can see now they were mocking scripture, but have to wonder why the writer did this. It was cleaver they used this because it would have gone over most people’s head, which tells me the writers for that group were Biblically based.