On the Greek text. The Greek follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint (Rahlfs-Hanhart in its main wording, itself an ancient, public-domain text); the distinctively copyrighted critical apparatus is not reproduced. Versification follows the LXX.

The Book of Proverbs (LXX) — Interlinear: Themes, Outlines & Translation Notes

A consolidated companion to the Proverbs data set: the currently rendered LXX Proverbs chapters (Proverbs 1-24 and Proverbs 30-36) rendered as a six-tier Greek reverse-interlinear (Greek · gloss · parsing/case · syntax · semantic force · lexical note), with per-verse discourse analysis and a chapter argument-outline.

This document gathers the theme, the argument outline (the outline movements authored into each data file), and the translation / textual / exegetical notes (the text_note of each file, reproduced verbatim). Major translation and interpretive cruxes are handled within those notes rather than silently resolved. Proverbs is the great anthology of Israel's sapiential instruction rendered into Greek with both fidelity and interpretive freedom: exhortations to seek wisdom, avoid adultery, govern speech, honor the poor, discipline the self, and fear the Lord are joined to the translator's expansions, transpositions, and vivid proverb-clusters. In its Septuagint form the book often amplifies moral contrast and communal consequence, making it one of the richest wisdom witnesses in the Greek Bible. The Greek follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint (Rahlfs–Hanhart in its main wording, itself an ancient public-domain text); the distinctively copyrighted apparatus is not reproduced, and versification follows the LXX.

Scope

Each annotated word carries Greek, a working gloss, color-coded grammatical case, parsing (Tense·Voice·Mood·Person·Number + lemma), a Wallace-style syntactic-function label, an aspectual semantic-force label (verbal forms), and a condensed lexical note. As translation Greek, the annotation additionally flags Hebraisms and the underlying Hebrew idiom where it illuminates the rendering.

The argument of the book

The macro-structure of the whole book - its major movements - under which the chapter-by-chapter detail below unfolds. LXX Proverbs is not a mechanically uniform translation: it contains expansions, reordered material, and freer renderings that often heighten ethical application and rhetorical vividness. The annotation tracks those sapiential movements, the recurring contrasts of wise and foolish, righteous and wicked, and the way the Greek form presses practical discernment into speech, labor, family, friendship, and rule. (Section divisions are interpretive; the more common analysis is generally followed.)

• I · 1-9 — The pedagogy of wisdom and folly. The opening prologue sets the fear of the Lord as wisdom's beginning, frames the book as fatherly and royal instruction, and stages Lady Wisdom and rival folly as competing summonses that shape the whole collection.
• II · 10-24 — The main Solomonic instruction on speech, justice, desire, and neighborly life. The middle body gathers concise sayings on discipline, honesty, diligence, wealth, kingship, friendship, anger, and the poor, repeatedly testing the hearer in ordinary habits under God's moral order.
• III · 30-36 — Later proverb clusters on discernment, social order, and durable provision. The closing LXX chapters continue the contrastive wisdom tradition with intensified attention to rulers, household management, labor, appetite, and the slow ruin or stability produced by speech and conduct.

Chapter-by-chapter

Proverbs 1 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ Α′

Theme. The book opens by declaring wisdom's purpose, grounding it in the fear of God, and setting Wisdom's public call against violent folly.

Outline.

• A · 1:1-6 — The Solomonic proverbs announce their pedagogical purpose. The title and opening infinitives present the collection as training in wisdom, discipline, discernment, righteous judgment, and the interpretation of difficult sayings.
• B · 1:7-9 — Fear of God and parental instruction form the true beginning of wisdom. The chapter states its thesis in the fear of God and immediately grounds that wisdom in the son's reception of fatherly and motherly instruction.
• C · 1:10-19 — The son is warned against joining violent men whose greed recoils upon themselves. A father rehearses the seductive speech of sinners and then unmasks their path as bloodshed, plunder, and ultimately self-destruction.
• D · 1:20-23 — Wisdom cries aloud in the city and offers breath-filled instruction. Personified Wisdom occupies the public places, rebukes the simple and foolish, and offers to pour out her breath and teach her word.
• E · 1:24-33 — Rejected Wisdom answers with judgment, but the listener receives security. Because her counsel was despised, Wisdom announces calamity for the wicked, yet she closes by promising secure rest to the one who hears her.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 1 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter serves as the threshold to the whole book: a Solomonic superscription is followed by a cascade of purpose clauses that define what the proverbs are for, namely wisdom, discipline, prudence, righteousness, and discerning judgment. Verse 7 states the governing thesis that fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, after which the poem turns into a fatherly warning against the fellowship of violent men. The second half personifies Wisdom as a public herald in the streets and gates of the city, where she first rebukes the simple for loving insolence and then announces the judgment that falls on those who refused her earlier calls. The chapter therefore moves from title, to program, to moral warning, to prophetic wisdom-speech, closing with the sharp contrast between the self-destruction of the wicked and the settled security of the hearer who listens.

Proverbs 2 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ Β′

Theme. Seeking wisdom like hidden treasure leads into the fear of the Lord and delivers the learner from crooked men and destructive desire.

Outline.

• A · 2:1-4 — The son must receive, call for, and search out wisdom like treasure. The chapter opens with a chain of conditional commands that portray wisdom as something to be welcomed, cried out for, and pursued with the intensity of treasure-seeking.
• B · 2:5-9 — The search leads to fear of the Lord because wisdom comes from him. Those conditions yield the fear and knowledge of God, for the Lord himself gives wisdom, stores up help for the upright, and teaches righteous judgment.
• C · 2:10-11 — Wisdom enters the inner life and becomes prudent protection. Once wisdom enters the mind and knowledge becomes sweet to the soul, good counsel and holy understanding begin actively guarding the learner.
• D · 2:12-19 — Wisdom rescues from crooked men and from destructive alien counsel. The protective function of wisdom is spelled out negatively: it delivers from perverse speech, dark paths, and the covenant-forgetting counsel that leads down to death.
• E · 2:20-22 — The chapter ends with the land reserved for the righteous and emptied of the wicked. The final contrast sets smooth paths and settled dwelling before the righteous, while the ungodly and lawless are destroyed or driven from the land.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 2 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter develops the promise implied in Proverbs 1 by tracing a sustained if-then sequence: if the son receives the father's sayings, calls for wisdom, and searches for understanding like hidden silver, then he will come to know the fear of the Lord and the ordered moral world that God grants. The middle of the poem presents wisdom as God's own gift, one that guards the upright, teaches judgment, and forms prudent inward habits. That gift has a sharply protective purpose: it rescues from crooked men who love darkness and from the alien, destructive counsel that abandons covenantal fidelity. The chapter closes by contrasting the end of the righteous and the wicked in land-language: the good, upright, and holy remain in the land, while the ungodly and lawless are cut off from it.

Proverbs 3 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ Γ′

Theme. Trust, discipline, generosity, and social fidelity gather into a single wisdom homily about walking securely under the Lord's ordering.

Outline.

• A · 3:1-10 — Remembered instruction, trusting fear, and just offering bring life and provision. The chapter opens with linked commands to remember instruction, bind mercy and faithfulness, trust God, shun evil, and honor the Lord with righteous produce, each joined to promises of life, peace, health, and abundance.
• B · 3:11-12 — The son must receive the Lord's discipline as filial love. A brief disciplinary saying interprets correction not as rejection but as the loving training given by a father to a received son.
• C · 3:13-20 — Wisdom is praised as richer than treasure and woven into creation itself. The poem blesses the one who finds wisdom, values her above gold and jewels, celebrates her peaceful and life-giving ways, and finally roots her in God's founding of earth and heavens.
• D · 3:21-26 — Preserved wisdom yields life, adornment, safe walking, restful sleep, and fearless steadiness. The son is urged to keep counsel and understanding close, because they become life and adornment and produce security in travel, sleep, and the face of sudden terror.
• E · 3:27-35 — Neighbor-love rejects delay, malice, and envy because the Lord blesses the righteous and shames the wicked. The closing admonitions forbid withholding help, plotting against a trusting friend, and envying violent men, then end with a stark contrast between divine curse on the lawless and grace and glory for the righteous.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 3 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter gathers a sequence of fatherly admonitions and promised outcomes into one of the book's great wisdom homilies. Its opening movement urges remembrance, mercy, fidelity, trust in God, reverence, and the honoring of the Lord with just labor, attaching to each command the gifts of life, peace, bodily well-being, and abundance. The middle then turns to divine discipline and a sustained praise of wisdom herself: she is more valuable than wealth, bears long life and honor in her hands, grants peaceful paths, and stands near God's own creative ordering of the world. The latter section returns to exhortation, promising security, sleep without terror, and the Lord's steadiness on the disciple's path, before narrowing into social ethics that forbid withholding good, scheming against a trusting neighbor, or envying violent men. The conclusion sets the covenantal contrast plainly: the righteous enjoy God's counsel, blessing, grace, and glory, while the lawless live under curse and public shame.

Proverbs 4 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ Δ′

Theme. Inherited wisdom is handed on as a guarded path of light set against the self-darkening way of the wicked.

Outline.

• A · 4:1-6 — A father hands on the instruction he once received and urges the sons to cling to wisdom. The chapter opens with a public summons to children, then folds back into the speaker's own childhood so that inherited teaching and present exhortation become one continuous chain.
• B · 4:8-13 — Wisdom exalts the one who honors her and gives a life-path that does not fail. Wisdom is to be embraced and guarded because she bestows crowns, long life, straight tracks, and strength for walking and running without collapse.
• C · 4:14-19 — The way of the wicked must be avoided because it feeds on harm and darkness. A sharp warning forbids entry into the path of the ungodly, whose restless violence contrasts with the righteous path that shines brighter and brighter.
• D · 4:20-23 — The father's sayings must be received into the heart as living and healing sources. The son is told to incline ear and heart to the father's words because they are life, healing, and the wellspring from which life's issues flow.
• E · 4:24-27 — Speech, sight, and steps must be disciplined into a straight and peaceful way. The chapter closes with embodied moral training: remove crooked speech, look straight ahead, make level tracks, and refuse deviation to right or left.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 4 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is a sustained paternal exhortation built around inherited instruction: a father addresses sons, recalls how he himself once received teaching from his own parents, and then hands that same wisdom forward as a guarded tradition. The first half stresses acquisition and love of wisdom, promising honor, long life, and secure movement for the one who clings to her. The middle sharply contrasts the righteous and the wicked: the wicked cannot sleep without doing harm and feed on lawlessness, whereas the righteous advance like growing light. The final section narrows the appeal to disciplined attention, heart-keeping, speech, sight, and steady walking, so that the disciple's whole bodily orientation is trained toward life. As in the earlier chapters, wisdom is not merely knowledge but a path to be entered, guarded, and embodied.

Proverbs 5 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ Ε′

Theme. Sweet-seeming seduction is exposed as a path to ruin, while covenantal delight and divine scrutiny anchor the call to fidelity.

Outline.

• A · 5:1-2 — The son is summoned to attentive wisdom and guarded perception. The chapter begins by calling the son to incline ear and mind to paternal wisdom so that good judgment and disciplined speech may be preserved.
• B · 5:3-6 — The seductive woman seems sweet at first but her path turns bitter and deadly. Her lips drip honey and smooth words, yet the end is bitter as gall, sharp as a sword, and directed toward death, Hades, and unstable tracks.
• C · 5:7-14 — Distance from her house is urged before strength, wealth, and honor are wasted. The father warns the son to stay far from her doors so that his life, labor, body, and public reputation are not devoured by strangers and regret.
• D · 5:15-20 — The son must delight in his own spring and the wife of his youth. Against illicit dispersal the poem offers covenantal possession and joy: drink from your own source, keep your waters your own, and rejoice with your proper wife.
• E · 5:21-23 — God sees every path, and sinners are finally bound by their own folly. The conclusion places the whole matter before God's eyes and declares that the wicked are ensnared by their own lawlessness and perish through undisciplined folly.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 5 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is a concentrated warning against sexual folly framed by a father's appeal to attentive hearing. The opening verses contrast the apparent sweetness of the foreign or prostituted woman with the bitter and deadly end of her path, which descends toward death and Hades. The middle of the chapter presses the warning into practical terms: keep far from her threshold, lest strength, wealth, reputation, and bodily vigor be handed over to strangers and regret arrive too late. In response, the discourse turns positively to the imagery of private waters, springs, and marital delight, urging the son to rejoice in the wife of his youth rather than pour his life into alien embraces. The final lines ground the whole warning in divine surveillance and moral consequence: a man's ways lie open before God, and the wicked are finally trapped by their own sins and destroyed through folly.

Proverbs 6 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ Ϛ′

Theme. Surety, sloth, perversity, and adultery are gathered into one urgent call for vigilance, work, and self-restraint.

Outline.

• A · 6:1-5 — The son must escape the trap of reckless surety without delay. The chapter begins by treating pledged surety as a self-made snare and urges urgent, sleepless effort to break free before the trap closes.
• B · 6:6-11 — The sluggard is shamed by the ant and bee, while poverty overtakes drowsy sleep. Creation's small workers become the teacher of diligence, and repeated drowsiness is answered by the swift arrival of poverty and want.
• C · 6:12-19 — The lawless man embodies deceit and gathers the things the Lord hates. A bodily portrait of the worthless man gives way to a catalog of hated evils, especially deceit, violence, and the sowing of judgment among brothers.
• D · 6:20-24 — Parental commandments are to be worn, walked with, and kept as a lamp of life. The son is told to bind fatherly and motherly instruction to himself, because commandment and law become guiding light and preserving reproof.
• E · 6:25-35 — Adultery promises desire but yields fire, shame, jealousy, and unpayable enmity. The closing section forbids capture by seductive beauty and shows adultery as more ruinous than theft, ending in public dishonor and the husband's unappeasable wrath.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 6 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is composite and fast-moving, gathering several wisdom admonitions under the same paternal voice. It opens with a warning about becoming surety for another, urging immediate, almost desperate action to escape self-imposed entanglement. From there the discourse turns to the sluggard, first through the famous appeal to the ant and, in the Septuagint, through an added meditation on the bee as a model of industrious usefulness, before describing how poverty overtakes lazy sleep. The chapter then sketches the lawless and worthless man whose body itself communicates deceit and who delights in the things the Lord hates. The final and longest movement returns to parental instruction as guiding lamp and then expands into an extended warning against adultery: seductive beauty gives way to public shame, inescapable retribution, and jealous wrath. Across these sections the same pattern holds: wisdom is the path of vigilance, work, discipline, and self-restraint, while folly traps the sinner in consequences he helped weave.

Proverbs 7 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ Ζ′

Theme. A staged seduction becomes a moral anatomy of desire, exposing the foreign woman's path as a descent into death.

Outline.

• A · 7:1-5 — Wisdom must be kept inwardly so that the foreign woman is held at a distance. The son is told to guard commandment like eyesight itself, make wisdom kin, and so be preserved from the persuasive speech of the strange woman.
• B · 7:6-9 — From the window the scene is set around a senseless youth moving toward danger at night. The chapter turns into observed narrative as the woman looks out and spies a young fool drifting toward her corner in evening darkness.
• C · 7:10-20 — The shameless woman meets him and builds a seductive false world with words, religion, and luxury. Her character, movement, and speech all work together to make adultery seem inviting, pious, and temporarily consequence-free.
• D · 7:21-23 — The youth is overpowered by speech and walks into death like trapped prey. Seductive talk succeeds, and the young man follows in a dazed state, compared to doomed animals that do not understand the fatal end before them.
• E · 7:24-27 — The father interprets the episode as a road descending to Hades. The hearer is called back from the scene and warned that her way has already slain many and leads down to the chambers of death.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 7 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter is a tightly shaped wisdom warning against the foreign woman, but the Septuagint gives the opening a distinctive cast by inserting the exhortation to honor the Lord and fear no other. That added piety sharpens the chapter's logic: fidelity to wisdom is already an act of ordered worship, and the seductress is dangerous because she draws the heart away from rightly ordered fear. After the opening commands to internalize wisdom as a guarded treasure and intimate companion, the discourse shifts into a vivid scene observed from the woman's own window. There a naive young man drifts toward her quarter at night, and the woman herself emerges as restless, mobile, shameless, and verbally manipulative. Her speech is calculated to make sin appear safe, festive, and hidden behind religious pretense, luxurious space, and an absent husband. The closing admonition interprets the scene for the hearer: this is not a private romantic encounter but a path downward into Hades, where many have already been struck down. The chapter therefore works both as narrative and as moral anatomy, exposing how desire is staged, persuaded, and finally ruined.

Proverbs 8 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ Η′

Theme. Proverbs 8 is the great public speech of personified Wisdom.

Outline.

• A · 8:1-11 — Wisdom calls publicly and openly with speech better than wealth. Wisdom appears in the open places of human life, summoning the simple to hear words that are straight, truthful, and more desirable than precious things.
• B · 8:12-21 — Wisdom names her own character and the gifts she grants. The middle movement presents Wisdom as prudence, counsel, strength for rulers, love for seekers, and durable riches joined with justice.
• C · 8:22-31 — Wisdom recounts her relation to creation before the ordered world stood forth. Wisdom speaks of being with the Lord before earth, heavens, sea, and inhabited world were set in their bounds, rejoicing in the ordered creation.
• D · 8:32-36 — The chapter closes with a final appeal to listen at Wisdom’s doors. The hearer is urged to watch for Wisdom because finding her means life and favor, while sinning against her is a love of death.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 8 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Proverbs 8 is the great public speech of personified Wisdom. Unlike the hidden seductions of folly in the surrounding chapters, Wisdom stands in the open at heights, crossroads, gates, and city entrances, addressing the whole human community with speech that is morally straight and intellectually sound. The chapter unfolds in three large movements: Wisdom's summons and self-description (8:1-21), Wisdom's primordial relation to the Lord's ordering of creation (8:22-31), and Wisdom's closing beatitude upon those who heed her while warning that rejection is a form of self-destruction (8:32-36). The Septuagint's diction is especially important in the cosmological section, where Wisdom is 'created' as the beginning of the Lord's ways and is present alongside him as the world is ordered; these lines became central to later Jewish and Christian reflection on creation, mediation, and divine wisdom. Throughout the chapter, Wisdom is not abstract speculation but a public, ethical, and life-giving reality: kings rule through her, justice is articulated by her, and those who seek her receive both understanding and life.

Proverbs 9 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ Θ′

Theme. Proverbs 9 stages the culminating contrast between Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly as rival hostesses calling the inexperienced into radically different forms of life.

Outline.

• A · 9:1-6 — Wisdom prepares her house and banquet. Lady Wisdom builds a seven-pillared house, prepares sacrificial food and mixed wine, and publicly invites the simple to leave folly and enter into life-giving understanding.
• B · 9:7-9 — Instruction must distinguish the wise from the wicked. The poem pauses to note that rebuke only hardens the wicked, whereas the wise and righteous welcome correction and grow through it.
• C · 9:10-12 — The fear of the Lord and the personal stakes of wisdom. The chapter states its governing maxim about the fear of the Lord, promises lengthened life to the wise, and warns that folly finally recoils upon the fool alone.
• D · 9:13-17 — Folly imitates Wisdom with a counterfeit invitation. A shameless and needy woman sits publicly and calls to the same simple hearers, offering illicit sweetness in place of true nourishment.
• E · 9:18 — The hidden end of Folly is death. The final verse tears away Folly's disguise and reveals that her guests descend toward Hades, so the hearer must flee quickly from her path.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 9 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Proverbs 9 stages the culminating contrast between Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly as rival hostesses calling the inexperienced into radically different forms of life. The chapter begins with Wisdom's well-built house, sacrificial meal, and public invitation, then pauses to reflect on who can actually receive correction before restating the foundational maxim that the fear of the Lord is wisdom's beginning. Its second half deliberately mirrors the first: Folly also sits in a public place and calls to the simple, but her offer is parasitic, secretive, and death-bound. The result is a carefully balanced chapter in which banquet imagery becomes moral pedagogy and every hearer is asked to discern which voice leads to life and which descends toward Hades.

Proverbs 10 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ Ι′

Theme. Proverbs 10 opens the Solomonic collections proper with a rapid sequence of antithetical sayings.

Outline.

• A · 10:1-5 — Household wisdom is seen in labor, discipline, and provision. The first sayings set wisdom and folly within the family and connect diligence or negligence to material stability.
• B · 10:6-14 — Speech and remembered reputation expose the righteous and the foolish. Blessing, concealment, violence, and stored-up knowledge show that speech reveals moral character and eventual outcome.
• C · 10:15-22 — Wealth, discipline, and measured speech are tested under the Lord’s moral order. The middle cluster contrasts false security, life-giving instruction, hatred, restraint, and the blessing of the Lord that truly enriches.
• D · 10:23-32 — The chapter closes by contrasting the lasting security of the righteous with the collapse of the ungodly. Joy, fear, endurance, and speech all divide the righteous from the wicked, ending with lips that know grace over against a mouth that turns aside.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 10 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Proverbs 10 opens the Solomonic collections proper with a rapid sequence of antithetical sayings. The chapter concentrates on household formation, speech, labor, wealth, discipline, and final outcomes, repeatedly contrasting the durable fruit of righteousness and prudence with the instability, exposure, and self-destruction of folly and impiety.

Proverbs 11 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ ΙΑ′

Theme. Proverbs 11 in the Septuagint keeps the chapter's rapid antithetical cadence while giving several sayings a distinctly Greek profile.

Outline.

• A · 11:1-3 — Honest measure and humility establish the chapter’s moral field. The opening sayings oppose deceitful weights to upright conduct and show how integrity guides while perversity destroys.
• B · 11:5-9 — Righteousness rescues, while ungodliness is trapped by its own way. Justice directs the blameless and delivers them in trouble, whereas impiety and corrupt speech ensnare their own speakers.
• C · 11:10-16 — Public life rises or falls through speech, counsel, prudence, and household character. The city’s welfare, the danger of loose talk, the need for counsel, and the effects of domestic honor or shamelessness are held together in one civic vision.
• D · 11:17-23 — Mercy, truthful labor, and upright desire tend toward life. The chapter next contrasts the self-reward of mercy and steadfast righteousness with cruelty, deceitful wages, and perverse hearts.
• E · 11:24-31 — Generosity, stewardship, trust, and recompense reveal the lasting fruit of righteousness. Openhandedness, wise household care, and the final recompense of the righteous and wicked close the chapter with a long moral horizon.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 11 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Proverbs 11 in the Septuagint keeps the chapter's rapid antithetical cadence while giving several sayings a distinctly Greek profile. The chapter is especially concerned with public life: honest measures, civic stability, counsel, speech in council, household order, and the social effects of generosity or greed all sit side by side. Verse 16 is notably expanded in the Greek, joining a saying about a gracious woman with paired observations about sloth and courage, and several lines prefer broad civic terms such as πολιται and πολυ βουλη rather than the tighter domestic framing familiar from the Hebrew. This corpus follows the Septuagint versification preserved in the source text, so the numbering moves from verse 3 to verse 5 without a separate verse 4.

Proverbs 12 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ ΙΒ′

Theme. Proverbs 12 gathers aphorisms around correction, truthful speech, diligent labor, domestic order, and the durable contrast between the righteous and the ungodly.

Outline.

• A · 12:1-4 — Correction and household honor. The opening sayings tie wisdom to discipline and show how righteous or corrupt character shapes a person’s stability and household honor.
• B · 12:5-10 — Thoughts, words, and merciful conduct. Righteous thinking and truthful speech are contrasted with deception, and the section culminates in compassion as a mark of the just.
• C · 12:11-18 — Labor, counsel, and the use of speech. The middle unit praises steady work and prudent restraint while exposing vanity, impulsive anger, and verbally destructive habits.
• D · 12:19-24 — Truth, peace, and diligent strength. These proverbs emphasize the endurance of truth, the joy of peaceable intention, and the authority that comes from diligence rather than deceit.
• E · 12:25-28 — Companionship, possession, and the path of life. The chapter closes with sayings on encouragement, friendship, honest gain, and the final contrast between the road of righteousness and the road to death.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 12 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Proverbs 12 gathers aphorisms around correction, truthful speech, diligent labor, domestic order, and the durable contrast between the righteous and the ungodly. The Septuagint gives the chapter a notably practical cast: the sayings move from the love of discipline, to the stability of righteous households, to compassion for animals, to the social consequences of words spoken in courts, homes, and ordinary dealings. Repeatedly the Greek presents righteousness as something that steadies, nourishes, heals, and remains, while wickedness deceives, overreaches, and eventually collapses into shame or death. The chapter therefore reads as a tightly linked meditation on character made visible in speech, work, and everyday judgment. Versification follows the LXX.

Proverbs 13 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ ΙΓ′

Theme. Proverbs 13 gathers short antithetical sayings around teachability, speech, work, wealth, discipline, and companionship.

Outline.

• A · 13:1-5 — Teachability, guarded speech, and truthful conduct distinguish the righteous from the self-ruined. The opening cluster joins obedient sonship, disciplined speech, diligence, and hatred of falsehood into one portrait of wisdom.
• B · 13:6-11 — Righteousness and sin are tested in wealth, appearance, boldness, and accumulation. The chapter contrasts moral protection with boastful lack, prudent reserve with exposed poverty, and enduring gain with vanity.
• C · 13:12-17 — Desire, commandment, instruction, and prudent conduct divide life from ruin. Deferred longing, reverence for commandment, wise teaching, and faithful messengership are placed over against folly and destructive desire.
• D · 13:18-21 — Reproof, companionship, and moral pursuit shape one’s end. The sayings insist that correction and company matter, since shame follows refusal of discipline while good and evil pursue according to their kind.
• E · 13:22-25 — Inheritance, discipline, and provision reveal wisdom’s long generational horizon. The closing proverbs tie righteousness to inherited good, careful training, and sufficiency, while wickedness ends in hunger and loss.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 13 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Proverbs 13 gathers short antithetical sayings around teachability, speech, work, wealth, discipline, and companionship. The Septuagint form of the chapter often expands the moral contrast so that inner disposition and outward consequence stand close together: the guarded mouth preserves life, lazy desire remains empty, arrogance breeds harm, and the righteous convert knowledge into mercy, stability, and inheritance. Taken together, the chapter reads as a sustained lesson in how wisdom orders desire, receives correction, and turns resources toward durable good rather than self-destruction.

Proverbs 14 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ ΙΔ′

Theme. Households, hearts, speech, labor, and nations stand or collapse according to whether wisdom or folly governs them.

Outline.

• A · 14:1-6 — Wisdom builds, reveres, and speaks truly, while folly destroys. The opening sayings contrast constructive wisdom with destructive folly in the house, in reverence toward the Lord, in speech, and in the search for understanding.
• B · 14:7-13 — Discernment sees through false appearances and perceives hidden ends. This movement warns against the fool, distinguishes prudent self-knowledge from wandering folly, and exposes the sorrow concealed beneath apparently straight or joyful ways.
• C · 14:14-22 — Inner disposition shapes repentance, conduct, companionship, and treatment of the poor. The chapter turns to boldness, simplicity, anger, social reversal, mercy, and practical goodness, showing that inward character steadily becomes outward moral consequence.
• D · 14:23-27 — Labor, truthful witness, and the fear of the Lord provide abundance and refuge. Industry brings surplus, falsehood destroys, and fear of the Lord becomes both strong confidence and a life-giving source that turns one from death.
• E · 14:28-35 — Public order, patience, compassion, and righteousness determine the fate of rulers and nations. The closing proverbs widen from personal character to kingship and peoplehood, ending with the claim that righteousness exalts a nation while sin diminishes it.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 14 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter gathers a broad sequence of antithetical and synthetic sayings around household building, fear of the Lord, speech, labor, social perception, royal order, and national righteousness. Several lines are distinctly Septuagintal in their wording and arrangement, yet the chapter's moral force is consistent throughout: wisdom is constructive, reverent, patient, truthful, and socially life-giving, while folly is self-destructive, deceptive, impulsive, and blind to consequences. One recurring pattern is the movement from private interior life to public consequence. The heart knows sorrow and joy from within, but its moral orientation also shapes friendships, treatment of the poor, witness, counsel, economic stewardship, and even the stability of king and nation. The fear of the Lord emerges as a central stabilizing theme, named directly and then echoed through sayings about refuge, life, restraint, and righteousness. Read as a whole, the chapter is a map of durable order: houses, souls, cities, and peoples stand or collapse according to whether wisdom or folly governs speech, desire, and action.

Proverbs 15 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ ΙΕ′

Theme. Proverbs 15 gathers short antithetical and synthetic sayings around speech, discipline, divine scrutiny, household order, justice, prayer, and the inner disposition that makes a life either stable or self-destructive.

Outline.

• A · 15:1-7 — Speech, correction, and moral temperament divide the wise from the foolish. The opening sayings contrast wrath with gentle reply, wise speech with foolish disclosure, disciplined sonship with mockery, and stable discernment with uprooted ruin.
• B · 15:8-15 — The Lord weighs worship, thought, and inward disposition. Sacrifice, prayer, counsel, grief, and expectation are all set under divine judgment, showing that inner posture matters as much as outward action.
• C · 15:16-23 — Moderation, patience, and deliberation make life habitable. Better small goods with peace than rich provision with hostility, and prudent counsel, straight walking, and timely speech preserve communal order.
• D · 15:24-30 — Righteous ways, honest judgment, and prayer align a person with life. The sayings move from the path that avoids Hades to God's overthrow of the proud, his hearing of righteous prayer, and the glad strength of good report.
• E · 15:32-33 — Discipline and the fear of God form the threshold of wisdom and glory. The chapter closes by identifying rejection of correction as self-hatred and by placing fear of God at the beginning of true wisdom.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 15 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Proverbs 15 gathers short antithetical and synthetic sayings around speech, discipline, divine scrutiny, household order, justice, prayer, and the inner disposition that makes a life either stable or self-destructive. The Septuagint frequently sharpens the moral polarity by placing public speech, private intention, and divine evaluation side by side: the right answer quiets wrath, the Lord sees every place, wicked sacrifice becomes abhorrent, and even a small portion with fear of the Lord is better than abundance joined to disorder. Taken as a whole, the chapter reads as a sustained lesson in how fear of God, teachability, measured speech, and righteous deliberation turn ordinary domestic and civic life toward peace and endurance.

Proverbs 16 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ ΙϚ′

Theme. Proverbs 16 gathers a long sequence of sayings around a cluster of recurring themes: the Lord's hidden governance of human action, the moral testing of speech and motives, the ordering of rule and justice, and the contrast between disciplined self-mastery and self-destructive crookedness.

Outline.

• A · 16:1-9 — The Lord weighs motives and directs the moral order. The opening sayings contrast human planning with divine scrutiny, emphasize humility before God, and place righteousness above sacrifice and wickedness under judgment.
• B · 16:10-15 — Royal speech, justice, and favor. A cluster of royal proverbs treats the king's lips, just measures, the stability of the throne through righteousness, and the life-giving or deadly force of royal favor and anger.
• C · 16:16-24 — Wisdom, discipline, and healing speech. The chapter praises wisdom above wealth, traces the life-giving path of discipline, and presents discerning and gracious words as nourishing and healing.
• D · 16:25-30 — Crooked paths and self-destructive speech. A set of warnings exposes apparently straight ways that end in death and portrays the crooked, deceitful, and lawless person as storing up ruin through speech and plotting.
• E · 16:31-33 — Patient mastery and the Lord's final justice. The closing sayings honor righteous old age, patient self-rule above martial conquest, and the Lord's decisive supervision even over what seems random or hidden.

Translation & textual notes. Proverbs 16 gathers a long sequence of sayings around a cluster of recurring themes: the Lord's hidden governance of human action, the moral testing of speech and motives, the ordering of rule and justice, and the contrast between disciplined self-mastery and self-destructive crookedness. The chapter repeatedly relativizes human planning by placing outcomes under divine scrutiny, while also insisting that ordinary practices like weighing, speaking, ruling, and restraining anger are decisive sites of wisdom. Its movement is less linear than cumulative, but the sayings cohere around the conviction that righteous order, truthful speech, and humble dependence upon the Lord make for durable life, whereas pride, deceit, and lawless manipulation collapse toward ruin.

Proverbs 17 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ ΙΖ′

Theme. Proverbs 17 gathers compact antithetical sayings on peace within the household, testing of the heart, loyalty among kin and friends, disciplined speech, judicial integrity, and the inward temper that either steadies or ruins a life.

Outline.

• A · 17:1-6 — Peace, tested character, and intergenerational honor outweigh wealth without order. The opening sayings prize peaceful simplicity over violent abundance, portray the Lord as tester of hearts, and tie family honor to fidelity rather than mere possessions.
• B · 17:7-12 — Speech, receptivity, and rebellion reveal whether wisdom is welcome. Truthful lips, fruitful discipline, and sober attentiveness are contrasted with falsehood, incorrigibility, and evil that summons harsh response.
• C · 17:13-19 — Justice, friendship, and social conduct expose the deep habits of the heart. The middle cluster condemns repaying good with evil, perverting justice, reckless surety, and love of quarrels, while commending timely friendship and moral seriousness.
• D · 17:20-28 — Inner disposition and restrained speech distinguish enduring prudence from grief and collapse. The closing sayings contrast hard-heartedness, foolish sonship, bribery, and scattered attention with cheerful resilience, measured words, and the appearance of wisdom in silence.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 17 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Proverbs 17 gathers compact antithetical sayings on peace within the household, testing of the heart, loyalty among kin and friends, disciplined speech, judicial integrity, and the inward temper that either steadies or ruins a life. The Septuagint form often sharpens the moral psychology of the chapter: hearts are assayed before the Lord, mockery of the poor becomes insult to the Creator, crooked speech and bribery distort justice, while prudent restraint, faithful friendship, and a cheerful heart preserve communal order and personal endurance.

Proverbs 18 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ ΙΗ′

Theme. Proverbs 18 gathers terse sayings about separation, folly, speech, judgment, wealth, friendship, and domestic blessing.

Outline.

• A · 18:1-4 — Separation, folly, and deep speech reveal the moral quality of the inner life. The chapter opens by warning against self-isolating motives, exposing the fool's aversion to wisdom, and setting profound speech alongside the image of life-giving waters.
• B · 18:5-9 — Judgment and self-destructive conduct show how folly harms both neighbor and self. Unjust partiality, reckless lips, laziness, and neglect of one's own work are treated as allied forms of ruin rather than isolated defects.
• C · 18:10-16 — True security, humility, listening, and prudence matter more than the appearance of strength. The middle cluster contrasts refuge in the Lord with confidence in wealth, links honor to humility, and praises attentive wisdom over premature speech.
• D · 18:17-19 — Disputes require testing, and loyal kinship possesses fortress-like strength. These sayings move from litigation to reconciliation, insisting that claims be examined and that a supported brother has the stability of a strong city.
• E · 18:20-22 — Speech bears tangible fruit, and household blessing is received as divine favor. The chapter closes by making words productive for life or death and by describing a good wife as both a discovered good and a cheerful gift from God.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 18 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Proverbs 18 gathers terse sayings about separation, folly, speech, judgment, wealth, friendship, and domestic blessing. In the Septuagint form the chapter repeatedly turns on how words and social bonds work: rash lips summon death, deep speech can become a spring of life, the first plea in court must still be tested, and brotherly help can stand like a fortified city. The closing lines widen the frame from courtroom and marketplace to household and covenant favor, presenting the good wife as a gift received from God and the tongue as an instrument whose fruit reaches toward either life or death.

Proverbs 19 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ ΙΘ′

Theme. Proverbs 19 gathers sayings about folly, social attachment, truthful witness, mercy, discipline, and the long reach of divine counsel.

Outline.

• A · 19:3-9 — Folly, friendship, and false witness undo the unstable. The opening cluster traces how folly ruins a person’s own way, how wealth and poverty expose the fragility of human friendship, and how false testimony inevitably comes under judgment.
• B · 19:10-15 — Order, mercy, and gifts from God define a fitting life. These proverbs reject social inversions, compare royal anger and favor, expose family shame, and distinguish inherited property from the spouse rightly fitted by God.
• C · 19:16-20 — Commandment, mercy, and discipline guard the soul. The middle sayings connect obedience with life, mercy with divine recompense, and patient parental correction with the hope of wisdom at life’s end.
• D · 19:21-25 — The Lord’s counsel outlasts human plans and sharpens correction. Human plotting is set beneath the permanence of God’s counsel, while mercy, reverence, sloth, and rebuke are weighed according to their true outcomes.
• E · 19:26-29 — Household dishonor and public injustice lead to prepared punishments. The chapter closes by warning against shaming parents, abandoning instruction, insulting justice, and embracing the undisciplined folly for which judgments are already prepared.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 19 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Proverbs 19 gathers sayings about folly, social attachment, truthful witness, mercy, discipline, and the long reach of divine counsel. In the Septuagint, the chapter repeatedly sets surface appearance against durable moral reality: wealth attracts friends but not loyalty, false testimony seems expedient but is never secure, and inherited goods can be measured only against gifts that come from God himself. The chapter is also marked by its concern for ordered relationships, especially between parents and children, rulers and subjects, the prudent and the fool, and the righteous and the poor. Across these proverbs, patience, mercy, and instruction preserve life, while arrogance, sloth, and perverted speech compound ruin. Versification follows the LXX.

Proverbs 20 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ Κ′

Theme. Proverbs 20 gathers warning sayings about drink, kingship, restraint, counsel, honest measures, speech, vows, and discipline into a compact moral sequence.

Outline.

• A · 20:1-3 — Wine, royal anger, and quarrels show how folly gives itself away in public. The opening sayings warn that intoxication, provoked authority, and needless strife expose a person who lacks wisdom and restraint.
• B · 20:4-6 — Sloth, hidden counsel, and the rarity of faithfulness test practical wisdom. The chapter contrasts shameful laziness with the prudent man who draws out counsel and with the hard-to-find truly faithful person.
• C · 20:7-13 — Integrity, honest judgment, divine perception, and disciplined speech order ordinary life. A blameless walk blesses descendants, a righteous king discerns evil, no one is naturally pure, and the Lord-made eye and ear summon watchful self-command.
• D · 20:23-26 — Dishonest trade, rash vows, and divine or royal scrutiny expose hidden evil. False measures are abhorrent, human steps are directed by the Lord, hasty consecration becomes a trap, and wise rule threshes the wicked.
• E · 20:27-30 — The Lord searches the inner chambers, steadies kings, and uses age and blows to teach wisdom. The closing cluster joins inward examination, merciful kingship, the honor of youth and age, and the chastening force that drives evil inwardly out.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 20 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Proverbs 20 gathers warning sayings about drink, kingship, restraint, counsel, honest measures, speech, vows, and discipline into a compact moral sequence. In the Septuagint form, several maxims are clustered into longer units, so the chapter moves from personal self-command to social trustworthiness and finally to royal judgment and the Lord's searching knowledge of the inward person.

Proverbs 21 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ ΚΑ′

Theme. Power, wealth, sacrifice, and strategy are tested under the Lord's scrutiny and shown durable only when joined to righteousness and restraint.

Outline.

• A · 21:1-4 — Royal power, human self-assessment, and acceptable righteousness are measured by God. The chapter opens by placing kingly rule, personal judgment, and moral action under the Lord, who directs hearts and prefers righteousness to sacrificial display.
• B · 21:6-13 — Fraud, crookedness, hardness, and refusal of mercy turn power against itself. Treasure gained by lies, resistance to justice, mercilessness toward the weak, and distorted ways all reveal the self-destructive logic of wickedness.
• C · 21:14-18 — Gifts, judgment, pleasure, and moral reversal expose true and false relief. Hidden gifts, holy judgment, pleasure-seeking poverty, and the exchange of wicked for righteous all show that apparent advantage is unstable.
• D · 21:19-27 — Household strife, disciplined speech, sloth, generosity, and sacrifice distinguish wisdom from folly. The middle unit contrasts contentious domestic life, greedy idleness, merciful righteousness, and abhorrent sacrifices offered without justice.
• E · 21:28-31 — Truthful hearing, straight understanding, and the Lord’s final superiority close the chapter. The closing sayings contrast false and obedient witnesses, oppose arrogance to straight understanding, and end by subordinating military preparation to divine help.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 21 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. The chapter gathers sayings about royal rule, divine scrutiny, acceptable righteousness, household strain, discipline, mercy, sloth, sacrifice, testimony, and war. A strong theological line runs through the whole collection: human plans, speech, and power remain under the Lord's superior direction. The king's heart is turned by God like channels of water, apparently righteous self-assessment is corrected by divine judgment, and even prepared horses do not secure victory apart from the Lord's help. Between those framing claims, the chapter repeatedly contrasts what only appears strong with what actually endures. Secret gifts, proud postures, fortified cities, abundant treasure, and sacrificial display can all be hollow or destructive when severed from justice, mercy, and self-restraint. By contrast, righteousness, truthful witness, guarded speech, care for the weak, and disciplined generosity are shown to preserve life and honor. Read as a whole, Proverbs 21 is an anatomy of practical power: it tests how authority, desire, anger, wealth, and religious performance are either bent toward wisdom under God or corrupted into forms of self-defeating folly.

Proverbs 22 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ ΚΒ′

Theme. Proverbs 22 joins compact comparative sayings about reputation, wealth, prudence, generosity, company, and justice with a more extended instructional turn beginning at verse 17.

Outline.

• A · 22:1-5 — Reputation, divine equality, prudence, and self-guarding outweigh visible status. The opening sayings rank a good name above wealth, place rich and poor alike under the same Creator, praise foresight, and warn that crooked ways are lined with traps.
• B · 22:7-16 — Power, giving, discipline, and hidden folly expose how social life can heal or distort. These sayings contrast domination and debt with mercy, show how generous and pure-hearted conduct wins favor, and insist that childish folly must be driven off by correction.
• C · 22:17-21 — The hearer is told to internalize wise words for trust, counsel, and truthful answer. A short instructional unit calls for attentive hearing, inward inscription, and truthful response shaped by stored wisdom and hope in the Lord.
• D · 22:22-29 — Do not exploit the weak, imitate hot temper, pledge recklessly, or move ancient boundaries. The chapter closes with warnings against oppression, volatile companionship, rash financial entanglement, and disregard for inherited limits, ending with praise for skillful diligence before kings.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 22 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Proverbs 22 joins compact comparative sayings about reputation, wealth, prudence, generosity, company, and justice with a more extended instructional turn beginning at verse 17. In the Septuagint form, the chapter moves from short antithetical maxims into a deliberate pedagogical sequence that urges the hearer to store wise words in the heart, protect the poor, avoid angry companions and reckless suretyship, and honor ancestral limits. Taken together, the chapter reads as a lesson in moral foresight: the prudent read danger early, the righteous order possessions and speech under the Lord's sight, and the teachable store wisdom inwardly so that truthful response and just action become possible.

Proverbs 23 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ ΚΓ′

Theme. Proverbs 23 gathers a long parental sequence of admonitions about appetite, wealth, discipline, inheritance, sexual danger, and drunkenness into one tightly moralized chapter.

Outline.

• A · 23:1-11 — Discernment at powerful tables and restraint before exploiters. The opening sayings warn the hearer to read powerful hospitality carefully, distrust envious hosts, and respect inherited boundaries and the defenseless poor whose redeemer is strong.
• B · 23:12-18 — Discipline, teachability, and hope grounded in the fear of the Lord. The chapter turns to formative instruction: the child is to receive discipline, the heart is to be shaped by wisdom, and zeal is redirected from sinners toward enduring reverence before the Lord.
• C · 23:19-28 — Parental exhortation, appetite, and the danger of the strange woman. A father exhorts his son toward prudent conduct, warns against gluttony and dissipation, honors parental joy, and then portrays the foreign woman as a narrow pit and a house of loss.
• D · 23:29-35 — The seduction and aftermath of drunkenness. The closing unit asks who suffers the misery of wine, forbids fascination with it, and traces intoxication through delusion, physical harm, instability, and compulsive return.

Translation & textual notes. Proverbs 23 gathers a long parental sequence of admonitions about appetite, wealth, discipline, inheritance, sexual danger, and drunkenness into one tightly moralized chapter. Much of its force lies in exposing surfaces: rich food conceals manipulation, wealth suddenly vanishes, indulgence ruins judgment, and stolen sweetness opens toward death and shame. The chapter also maintains the positive frame of wisdom instruction by urging the hearer toward receptive discipline, reverence for the Lord, joy in parental fidelity, and self-control in speech, desire, and company.

Proverbs 24 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ ΚΔ′

Theme. Proverbs 24 gathers warning sayings about companionship, house-building, righteous resilience, rescue of the endangered, royal speech, truthful judgment, and the ruinous drift of sloth into a composite chapter of moral instruction.

Outline.

• A · 24:1-12 — Do not envy evil men; wisdom builds, judges, and requires active rescue. The opening unit opposes fellowship with evil to the constructive power of wisdom and culminates in the demand to deliver those being led to death under the Lord who knows every heart.
• B · 24:13-20 — Wisdom is sweet, the righteous rise again, and one must not gloat over an enemy’s fall. Honey becomes an image for wisdom’s sweetness and hope, while the sayings contrast the recovery of the righteous with the extinguished future of the wicked.
• C · 24:21-22 — Fear God and the king, for rebellion and royal wrath strike suddenly. A filial warning joins reverence for God and king with an extended meditation on the danger of resisting royal authority and lying before power.
• D · 24:23-29 — Judgment, truthful speech, and neighborly restraint preserve communal order. The wise reject partiality in judgment, approve candid reproof, honor good answers, and forbid false witness and private vengeance.
• E · 24:30-34 — The neglected field becomes a final lesson against sloth. The chapter closes with an observational parable in which abandoned labor leads step by step to desolation, poverty, and want.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 24 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Proverbs 24 gathers warning sayings about companionship, house-building, righteous resilience, rescue of the endangered, royal speech, truthful judgment, and the ruinous drift of sloth into a composite chapter of moral instruction. In the Septuagint form, the chapter moves from paternal admonition and wisdom-building, through judicial and royal reflections, into practical warnings about witness, retaliation, and neglected labor, so that private discipline and public justice remain tightly joined.

Proverbs 30 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ Λ′

Theme. Proverbs 30 differs from the surrounding chapters by moving from a first-person wisdom confession into prayer, numerical sayings, and vivid miniature observations about social inversion, small creatures, and regal bearing.

Outline.

• A · 30:1-6 — The speaker confesses his limits and anchors wisdom in the tested word of God. The chapter opens with an address to the son, a confession of human unworthiness, a series of cosmic questions about God, and a warning not to add to his purified words.
• B · 30:7-10 — A prayer for truthful moderation rejects both abundance and deprivation. The speaker asks for freedom from falsehood, for daily sufficiency instead of wealth or poverty, and for restraint in social speech that would destroy a servant.
• C · 30:11-17 — A vicious generation and insatiable powers expose the appetite of wickedness. The chapter sketches a corrupt offspring marked by contempt, self-justification, pride, and devouring violence, then turns to images of things that never say 'enough.'
• D · 30:18-23 — Mysteries of conduct and intolerable reversals show how hidden patterns govern life. Untraceable ways, adulterous denial, and social inversions that make the earth quake are grouped as morally and socially destabilizing phenomena.
• E · 30:24-33 — Small creatures, stately motions, and the danger of provoked conflict conclude the lesson. The closing numerical sayings praise humble but ordered wisdom in creation, then move to noble forms of movement before ending with a warning that pressure and provocation yield strife.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 30 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Proverbs 30 differs from the surrounding chapters by moving from a first-person wisdom confession into prayer, numerical sayings, and vivid miniature observations about social inversion, small creatures, and regal bearing. In the Septuagint form the chapter emphasizes creaturely limitation before God, the purity of the divine word, moderation in possessions, the violence of a corrupt generation, and the strange wisdom displayed both in the natural world and in ordered public life. The final admonitions gather the chapter's mood into one practical warning: prideful stirring, like physical pressure, produces conflict.

Proverbs 31 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ ΛΑ′

Theme. In the Septuagint this final chapter falls into two linked movements: a mother’s instruction to a king about disciplined judgment, sober self-command, and advocacy for the weak, followed by an encomium of the strong wife whose labor, prudence, mercy, and public honor order an entire household.

Outline.

• A · 31:1-9 — A mother teaches royal discipline and justice. The opening oracle frames maternal instruction for a king: he must not dissipate himself in destructive appetites, but preserve sober judgment and speak for the poor and weak.
• B · 31:10-18 — The strong wife is trusted, industrious, and farsighted. The poem begins by asking who can find such a woman, then answers through her husband’s confidence, her productive hands, her trade, and her tireless attention to the work that sustains life.
• C · 31:19-24 — Her labor enriches household, poor, and public standing. Her skilled work reaches from spindle to marketplace, extends generosity to the poor, clothes her house, and gives her husband honored visibility among the elders at the gate.
• D · 31:25-31 — Wisdom, mercy, and fear of the Lord bring lasting praise. The closing lines present ordered speech, strength, and mercy as the marks of her character, then crown the poem by locating her praise not in appearance but in understanding and reverence before the Lord.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 31 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. In the Septuagint this final chapter falls into two linked movements: a mother’s instruction to a king about disciplined judgment, sober self-command, and advocacy for the weak, followed by an encomium of the strong wife whose labor, prudence, mercy, and public honor order an entire household. The LXX presentation places special weight on counsel, practical industry, and speech governed by law and wisdom, so that domestic excellence is shown as a public good rather than a merely private virtue. The chapter closes by subordinating beauty and charm to understanding and the fear of the Lord. Versification follows the LXX.

Proverbs 32 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ ΛΒ′

Theme. This chapter opens the Hezekian collection by explicitly attributing these sayings to the men of Hezekiah who copied Solomon's instruction, and the material that follows reflects that editorial turn: kingship, rank, measured speech, loyal friendship, restraint, and social prudence are all set under the discipline of timing and self-command.

Outline.

• A · 32:1-5 — The Hezekian superscription introduces royal and judicial wisdom. The collection is introduced as Solomonic instruction copied by Hezekiah's circle, then immediately turns to God's hidden counsel, the inscrutable royal heart, and the purging of wickedness before the throne.
• B · 32:6-10 — Status, quarrels, and friendship require humility and careful speech. A cluster of courtly and interpersonal sayings warns against self-exaltation, rash litigation, and the kind of disgrace that comes from unmanaged conflict and exposed secrets.
• C · 32:11-15 — Well-timed words, faithful messengers, and patient persuasion give life. Ornamented speech, welcome news, trustworthy service, and gentle persistence are presented as restorative goods against boastful emptiness.
• D · 32:16-22 — Appetite, neighborliness, grief, and enemy-love test inner mastery. The chapter moves through moderation, social tact, the damage of false witness and sorrow, and the surprising discipline of feeding one's enemy under the Lord's eye.
• E · 32:23-28 — Speech, domestic peace, inward damage, and self-rule close the chapter. Northern wind, contentious living, refreshing news, compromised righteousness, moderated honor, and the unfortified soul form the chapter's closing meditation on wise restraint.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 32 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. This chapter opens the Hezekian collection by explicitly attributing these sayings to the men of Hezekiah who copied Solomon's instruction, and the material that follows reflects that editorial turn: kingship, rank, measured speech, loyal friendship, restraint, and social prudence are all set under the discipline of timing and self-command. The Septuagint preserves both the practical sharpness of the collection and its recurring interest in how public order depends on inward wisdom.

Proverbs 33 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ ΛΓ′

Theme. Proverbs 33 gathers sharp comparisons and ironic warnings about folly, laziness, rash speech, quarrels, deceit, and concealed hostility into a tightly linked sequence.

Outline.

• A · 33:1-5 — Honor does not belong to folly, and dealing with fools requires measured discernment. The chapter opens with comparisons that show how unfitting honor is for a fool and then sets two complementary instructions about when not to answer folly and when answering it is necessary.
• B · 33:6-12 — Sending, rewarding, imitating, or admiring fools multiplies shame and instability. The next sayings portray the fool as a source of embarrassment, broken speech, misused honor, repeated sin, and self-deceived pretension.
• C · 33:13-19 — Laziness, meddling, and mockery turn ordinary life into danger and humiliation. The sluggard invents threats, avoids effort, and imagines himself wise, while the meddler, the joker, and the ambusher of friends all create avoidable harm.
• D · 33:20-28 — Quarrels, whispering, and concealed hatred reveal how deceit destroys community. The closing cluster traces conflict from fuel and insult to smooth speech, hidden malice, exposed sin, and the ruin worked by falsehood and instability.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 33 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Proverbs 33 gathers sharp comparisons and ironic warnings about folly, laziness, rash speech, quarrels, deceit, and concealed hostility into a tightly linked sequence. In the Septuagint form the chapter moves from memorable images - dew in harvest, a dog returning to vomit, a door on its hinge, wood feeding fire - to increasingly explicit social judgments about fools, meddlers, mockers, slanderers, and enemies who flatter while plotting harm. Taken together, the sayings insist that folly is not harmless eccentricity but a destabilizing force in speech, friendship, deliberation, and communal life, while prudence is shown in restraint, distance from strife, and resistance to seductive or treacherous words.

Proverbs 34 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ ΛΔ′

Theme. Proverbs 34 moves through warnings against presumption, self-praise, jealousy, hidden hostility, displacement, rash speech, domestic strife, insatiable desire, incorrigible folly, and the instability of human power before turning to the durable wisdom of attentive stewardship.

Outline.

• A · 34:1-6 — Humility, honest correction, and tested friendship restrain destructive self-regard. The chapter opens by forbidding presumption about tomorrow and self-praise, then contrasts the burdens of anger, jealousy, hidden affection, and treacherous kisses with the painful trustworthiness of open rebuke and faithful friendship.
• B · 34:7-12 — Need, rootedness, loyal friendship, and prudence steady life in trouble. A cluster of sayings reflects on appetite, displacement, inner distress, inherited friendship, teachable wisdom, and the prudence that recognizes danger before fools pay the price.
• C · 34:13-18 — Undiscerning speech and domestic strife corrode life, while honest exchange and patient labor yield reward. The middle sequence warns about rash involvement, noisy blessing, quarrelsome domestic life, and deceptive appearances, then turns to the sharpening effect of companionship and the fruit borne by faithful cultivation and service.
• D · 34:19-22 — Desire, praise, and discipline reveal what lies hidden in the heart. Human hearts differ profoundly, desire remains hard to satisfy, praise tests character like fire, and even severe public punishment cannot drive folly out of one who clings to it.
• E · 34:23-27 — Careful stewardship of flock and field provides enduring household stability. The closing instructions press the hearer toward attentive oversight because wealth is not permanent; practical care for pasture, grass, sheep, lambs, and dependents becomes wisdom embodied in durable provision.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 34 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Proverbs 34 moves through warnings against presumption, self-praise, jealousy, hidden hostility, displacement, rash speech, domestic strife, insatiable desire, incorrigible folly, and the instability of human power before turning to the durable wisdom of attentive stewardship. In the Septuagint form, the chapter binds interpersonal wisdom to material prudence: one learns to receive rebuke, treasure loyal friendship, distrust flattering noise, recognize the limits of coercion, and care patiently for field, flock, household, and the lives entrusted to one's oversight.

Proverbs 35 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ ΛΕ′

Theme. Proverbs 35 gathers sayings on fearless righteousness, fidelity to the law, the moral uses of wealth, parental instruction, honest judgment, oppression, royal conduct, and generosity toward the poor.

Outline.

• A · 35:1-6 — The righteous stand firm while the wicked are inwardly unstable and morally blind. The opening cluster contrasts baseless fear, social disorder, oppression, and praise of wickedness with the confidence, discernment, and integrity that come from seeking the Lord and walking in truth.
• B · 35:7-14 — Law, prayer, confession, discipline, and reverent fear order a life toward mercy. A series of sayings ties filial obedience, wealth, attentive prayer, honest confession, and teachable humility together, warning that hard-hearted secrecy and moral deafness block flourishing.
• C · 35:15-18 — Predatory rule destroys the poor, but discipline and straight paths preserve life. The chapter exposes tyrannical power and violent complicity, then turns back to parental correction and the security granted to those who walk uprightly.
• D · 35:19-24 — Work, reliability, truthful reproof, and honor for parents reveal social wisdom. Diligence, trustworthiness, freedom from partiality, honest rebuke, and filial loyalty are set over against laziness, flattery, and covert lawlessness.
• E · 35:25-28 — Trust in the Lord, generosity, and the fall of the wicked close the chapter. The final sayings reject self-confident appetite and envy, commend reliance on the Lord and care for the poor, and end with the multiplication of the righteous when the wicked perish.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 35 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Proverbs 35 gathers sayings on fearless righteousness, fidelity to the law, the moral uses of wealth, parental instruction, honest judgment, oppression, royal conduct, and generosity toward the poor. In the Septuagint form, the chapter keeps returning to the contrast between the unstable interior of the ungodly and the steadiness granted to those who seek the Lord, receive discipline, reject partiality, and entrust themselves to wisdom rather than grasping greed or hard-hearted self-confidence.

Proverbs 36 — ΠΑΡΟΙΜΙΑΙ ΛϚ′

Theme. This final tracked chapter in the current Proverbs sequence gathers sayings about correction, public joy or grief under rulers, sexual ruin, just kingship, traps in friendship, care for the poor, civic anger, discipline, trust, speech, servants, pride, oaths, fear of man, and divine judgment.

Outline.

• A · 36:1-4 — Correction, public rule, and paternal wisdom set the chapter’s moral frame. The opening sayings praise timely rebuke, connect righteous rule with public joy, warn against sexual ruin, and show that a just king establishes a land.
• B · 36:5-10 — False friendship, civic anger, judgment, and bloodguilt distinguish the wise from the wicked. The chapter then exposes flattering traps, sinful snares, and destructive mockers while praising wise judgment, righteous delight, and the search for innocent life.
• C · 36:11-18 — Anger, rulers, discipline, and law shape households and peoples. Fools pour out wrath, unjust rulers corrupt dependents, the Lord sees both lender and debtor, discipline gives rest, and law-kept order is blessed.
• D · 36:19-23 — Speech, servants, temper, and pride test ordinary wisdom. The next cluster warns about hard servants, hasty speech, indulgence, quarrelsome anger, and pride, while humility is upheld by the Lord.
• E · 36:24-27 — Oaths, fear of man, and human judgment are finally subordinated to the Lord. The closing sayings condemn complicity with theft, expose the snare of human fear, and end by locating true justice with the Lord while contrasting righteous and wicked paths.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Proverbs 36 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs-Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. This final tracked chapter in the current Proverbs sequence gathers sayings about correction, public joy or grief under rulers, sexual ruin, just kingship, traps in friendship, care for the poor, civic anger, discipline, trust, speech, servants, pride, oaths, fear of man, and divine judgment. The chapter repeatedly tests whether power and reaction are governed by wisdom or by impulse. A just king raises a land, wise men turn away wrath from a city, and a ruler who listens to injustice corrupts all beneath him. At the personal level, anger, haste in speech, false loyalty, and fear of human opinion become recurrent snares, while correction, patience, humility, and trust in the Lord preserve life and honor. Several sayings widen the horizon toward communal ethics: the righteous know how to judge for the poor, delight in just rule spreads through a people, and what is finally right for man comes from the Lord rather than from flattery or power-brokering. Read as a whole, the chapter is a sober closing lesson in moral government, showing how households, cities, rulers, and individual souls are steadied by discipline and divine fear rather than by heat, boastfulness, or opportunism.

How the data set is organized

• lxx-interlinear/data/proverbs{1..24}, proverbs{30..36}.json — the durable scholarly content: one JSON object per chapter (reference, titles, text-note, outline, and verses with per-word annotation and per-verse discourse notes). The data set shares the nt-interlinear toolkit and schema with the New Testament volumes.
• lxx-interlinear/ — the LXX data home and index builder; rendering reuses the chapter-agnostic nt-interlinear toolkit (stdlib-only HTML; headless-Chromium PDF). Adding a chapter (or a book) requires no code changes.
• Rendered artifacts — Proverbs{1..24}, Proverbs{30..36}.html and .pdf under lxxsite/Proverbs/, linked from its index.html in the Septuagint site root.

The interpretive tiers (syntactic function, semantic force, discourse structure, and the proposed argument outlines) are interpretive by nature; where readings legitimately differ, the more common analysis was generally chosen, and the lexical notes are condensed orientation rather than a substitute for a lexicon (e.g. LEH / Muraoka) or a full commentary.