Texts in Conversation
In Proverbs 8, wisdom invites all people to learn discernment. The Greek Septuagint struggled with its translation and the result is notoriously difficult to understand and translate, with the obscure Greek language having no natural meaning.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Proverbs 8:5
Hebrew Bible
4 “To you, O people, I call out, and my voice calls to all mankind. 5 You who are naive, discern wisdom! And you fools, understand discernment! 6 Listen, for I will speak excellent things, and my lips will utter what is right.
Date: 600–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Proverbs 8:5
Septuagint
4 You, men, I exhort; and utter my voice to the sons of men. 5 you simple, understand subtlety, and you that are untaught, lay it to heart. 6 Listen to me; for I will speak solemn truths; and will produce right sayings from my lips.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... LXX Proverbs 8:5 ... ἔνθεσθε καρδίαν, “pay attention.” This Greek expression has completely baffled translators and lexicographers, who have proposed an unusually wide range of interpretations ... The difficulty is that the verbal phrase used here, literally “insert heart,” has no Greek idiomatic meaning, and seems to make no sense in the context ..."
Albert M. Wolters, Septuagint Commentary Series: Proverbs (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 164.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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