Polyglot Bible: Proverbs: Proverbs 4

This is a synoptic scripture table presenting Proverbs 4 in four parallel versions: the King James Version (English), the Septuagint (ancient Greek), the Hebrew Masoretic Text (Tanakh), and the Latin Vulgate — a format used in comparative biblical scholarship and textual criticism. The passage is a wisdom poem in which a father urges his son to pursue wisdom above all else, framing the instruction as transmitted teaching passed down from his own father, giving it a three-generation chain of authority. The central argument is that wisdom is the supreme acquisition: it protects, honors, and lengthens life, while the path of the wicked leads only to stumbling in darkness. A sharp moral contrast structures the chapter — the righteous walk a path like brightening dawn, the wicked like deepening dark — and the closing verses offer concrete behavioral guidance: guard your heart, speak straight, look forward, and deviate neither right nor left. The distinctive value of this presentation lies not in any single translation but in the comparison itself, making variant renderings visible side by side — for instance, the Septuagint's verse 27 uniquely adds that God knows the right-hand paths and will lead the reader's ways in peace, a line absent from the Hebrew. This would interest readers doing text-critical work, translation history research, or devotional study across the Christian and Jewish textual traditions.

Polyglot Bible: Proverbs: Proverbs 4

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