Pro 14:7 | NETfull | STEP | Leave the presence of a foolish person, or you will not understand wise counsel.

Proverbs 14:7

7 Leave the presence of a foolish person, ^{▼▼ Heb “a man, a stupid fellow.”}
or ^{▼▼ Heb “and.” The vav (ו) that introduces this clause may be understood as meaning “or….”} you will not understand ^{▼▼ The MT reads וּבַל־יָדַעְתָּ (uval-yada’ta, “you did not know [the lips of knowledge]).” It must mean that one should leave the fool because he did not receive knowledge from what fools said. Tg. Prov 14:7 freely interprets the verse: “for there is no knowledge on his lips.” The LXX reflects a Hebrew Vorlage of וּכְלֵי־דַעַת (ukh^ele-da’at, “[wise lips] are weapons of discretion”). The textual variant involves wrong word division and orthographic confusion between ב (bet) and כ (kaf). C. H. Toy emends the text: “for his lips do not utter knowledge” as in 15:7 (Proverbs [ICC], 285). The MT is workable and more difficult.} wise counsel. ^{▼▼ Heb “lips of knowledge” (so KJV, ASV). “Lips” is the metonymy of cause, and “knowledge” is an objective genitive (speaking knowledge) or attributive genitive (knowledgeable speech): “wise counsel.”}