Saturday, August 10, 2019

Proverbs 26:23: "Silver Dross" or "Like Glaze"?

Doing a little Ugaritic research in preparation for presenting a paper on the impact Ugaritic makes on Bible translation...For example, Proverbs 26:23.

"Like the glaze(1) covering an earthen vessel are fervent lips with an evil heart" (Prov. 26:23 ESV). 

Why the textual footnote (1) in the ESV? 

The Hebrew text seems to have "silver dross" (ksp-sgm). But silver was not used in plating those vessels, and silver dross would not make an attractive exterior. Keeping the same Hebrew letters, a parallel Ugaritic expression "like/similar to" + "glaze" (k-spsgm) makes good sense in this proverb, argues Kenneth L. Barker (p. 128-29; see also NET). 

Point well-taken: an evil heart tends to conceal itself, so beware!

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