Proverbs 12: Honest words and hard work | Bible study

These sayings show what people who do right are like on the inside. They tell the truth, they say things that help, they work hard, and they listen when someone tells them they are wrong.

Proverbs 12:1

If you want to learn, you will be glad when someone shows you your mistakes. Anyone who hates being told he is wrong has no more sense than an animal.

Whoever loves correction loves knowledge,

You cannot want to know more and also refuse to be told you are wrong. The person who actually welcomes correction is the one who really wants knowledge, because correction is how knowledge arrives.

but whoever hates being reproved is a brute.

The contrast is blunt. Someone who cannot bear being shown a fault is no better than an animal, which also cannot be reasoned with or taught by words.

אהב · ahav · love: The verb appears twice in the line. What a person loves decides what he learns; it is a matter of desire, not ability.
מוסר · musar · discipline, correction: Training that includes being corrected, sometimes painfully. The key word of Proverbs 1:2 to 8.
דעת · da'at · knowledge: Knowledge gained by experience. Here it is the reward of putting up with musar.
שנא · sane · hate: The opposite of ahav in the first line. The two halves turn on what a person loves and what he hates.
תוכחת · tokachat · correction, reproof: Being shown, with reasons, that you are in the wrong. It is the spoken side of musar.
בער · ba'ar · brutish: Related to the Hebrew word for cattle. It means stupid in the way a beast is: unable to take instruction. Psalm 73:22 uses it beside the word for an animal.

Proverbs 12:2

God is pleased with a good person. But He says guilty to anyone who plans to hurt others.

A good person draws favor from the LORD,

Goodness here is not a mood but a way of dealing with people. The LORD looks on such a person with pleasure and acceptance.

but a schemer He declares guilty.

The opposite of the good person is not the openly violent one but the planner of harm. He may fool people, but the LORD is the judge and gives the verdict: guilty.

טוב · tov · good: Used here as a noun, the good one. It describes a person who is kind and beneficial to others, the opposite of one who plots against them.
פוק · puq · draw out, obtain: To bring out or get. The same phrase, obtaining favor from the LORD, is used of finding wisdom in Proverbs 8:35.
רצון · ratson · pleasure, acceptance: What someone is pleased with. It is the word used for a sacrifice God accepts. It returns in verse 22 as His delight.
מזמה · mezimmah · scheme, plan: Literally a man of schemes. In Proverbs 1:4 the same word is the good ability to plan ahead; here it is that ability turned to harm.
רשע · hirshia · declare guilty: A court verb built on rasha, wicked: to pronounce someone in the wrong. The LORD treats the schemer as what he is.

Proverbs 12:3

Doing wrong will never make your life safe and strong. People who do right are like a tree with deep roots that can't be pulled up.

No one is made secure by wickedness,

People do wrong to get ahead and make their position safe. The saying denies that it works: nothing built on wrongdoing has a firm base.

but the root of the righteous will not be shaken loose.

The picture changes from a building to a tree. The righteous have a root that holds, so storms that topple others leave them standing. The contrast is between a thing with no footing and a thing that cannot be pulled up.

כון · kun · be made firm: To be set firmly in place, as a house on its foundation or a throne. The verb returns in verse 19 for truthful lips.
רשע · resha · wrongdoing: The noun for the conduct of the rasha: being in the wrong before God and people.
שרש · shoresh · root: The hidden part of a plant that anchors and feeds it. It comes back in verse 12.
צדיק · tsaddiq · one in the right: A person who lives in line with what is right before God and is fair to others. The chapter names this person more than ten times.
מוט · mot · totter, slip: To shake, slip or give way. With the negative it is a common Psalms phrase for complete security.

Proverbs 12:4

A good wife is like a crown on her husband's head. A wife who makes him ashamed is like a sickness deep in his bones.

A wife of strong character is her husband's crown,

A capable, worthy wife is the thing that makes her husband honored in public, the way a crown marks out the one who wears it. His standing comes from her.

but one who brings shame is like rot in his bones.

The contrast moves from the head to the inside of the body, and from what everyone sees to what no one sees. A wife who disgraces him eats away at him from within, slowly and painfully, like decay in the skeleton that holds a person up.

אשת חיל · eshet chayil · woman of strength: Chayil means strength, ability and worth; it is the word for an army and for a man of standing. The same phrase opens the poem of Proverbs 31:10 and is said of Ruth (Ruth 3:11).
עטרה · atarah · crown, wreath: A crown or festive wreath worn on the head, a visible sign of honor and joy.
בעל · ba'al · husband, owner: The ordinary word for a husband as head of the household.
בוש · bosh · cause shame: The form means one who causes shame. Shame in Israel was public: loss of face before the community.
רקב · raqav · decay, rot: Decay such as worm-eaten wood. Proverbs 14:30 uses the same picture for envy.
עצם · etsem · bone: The bones stand for the frame and inner strength of a person. Damage there is deep and disabling.

A wreath or crown was worn at weddings and feasts and marked a person as honored. In a society where a household's reputation was shared, a wife's character was seen by everyone as her husband's honor or his disgrace.

Proverbs 12:5

People who do right plan to be fair. The advice bad people give is full of tricks.

What the righteous plan is justice;

The saying looks behind actions to intentions. When righteous people think out what to do, the aim itself is fair treatment of others.

what the wicked steer toward is deceit.

The wicked plan just as carefully, but the skill is aimed at tricking people. So their advice cannot be trusted even when it sounds clever. The contrast is between two kinds of planning, not between planning and impulse.

מחשבה · machashavah · plan, intention: From a verb meaning to reckon or devise. It means worked-out plans, not passing thoughts.
משפט · mishpat · justice, right ruling: The Hebrew is a noun: their plans are justice. It is what a fair judge would decide.
תחבלות · tachbulot · steering, guidance: The steering word of Proverbs 1:5, from the ropes of a ship. Here the skill is real but the destination is fraud.
מרמה · mirmah · deceit, fraud: Also a noun: their guidance is deceit. It is the word for false scales in Proverbs 11:1. It returns in verses 17 and 20.

Proverbs 12:6

The words of bad people are like robbers hiding by the road, waiting to hurt someone. The words of honest people save lives.

The words of the wicked are an ambush for blood,

Words can kill. False accusation, slander and plotting are pictured as men hiding beside a road to murder a traveler.

but the mouth of the upright delivers them.

Speech can also save. The honest person's testimony or warning pulls people out of the trap, whether that is the intended victims or the upright themselves when accused.

דבר · davar · word, matter: The ordinary word for something spoken. The verse treats speech as an act with real effects.
ארב · arab · lie in ambush: The verb of the gang's invitation in Proverbs 1:11. Here it is the words themselves that lie in wait.
דם · dam · blood, bloodshed: Stands for a violent death.
פה · peh · mouth: The mouth stands for what a person says.
ישר · yashar · straight, upright: Literally straight. A person with nothing crooked in his dealings or his speech.
נצל · natsal · snatch away, deliver: To pull someone out of danger, as prey is snatched from an animal's mouth.

The Hebrew says only 'delivers them' and does not say who. It may be the upright themselves, saved by their own honest speech, or the people the wicked were lying in wait for.

Proverbs 12:7

Bad people get knocked down, and then they are gone. The home and family of people who do right keep standing.

The wicked are overturned and are gone,

Their fall is sudden and total. One upheaval and nothing is left to show they were there.

but the house of the righteous keeps standing.

House means both the building and the family line. The righteous leave something that outlasts them, while the wicked leave a blank. This restates verse 3 with a house in place of a root.

הפך · haphak · overturn: To turn upside down. It is the verb used for the overthrow of Sodom in Genesis 19:25.
אין · ayin · there is none: The Hebrew word of non-existence. They simply are not.
בית · bayit · house, household: A dwelling, and also a family and its descendants, as in the house of David.
עמד · amad · stand, endure: To stand and remain standing.

Proverbs 12:8

People say good things about someone who has good sense. They look down on someone whose thinking is all twisted.

A person is praised in proportion to his good sense,

In the long run people give respect to someone who thinks clearly and acts sensibly, and the amount of respect matches the amount of sense.

but one with a twisted mind ends up held in contempt.

The opposite of good sense is not slowness but a bent way of thinking that distorts whatever it handles. Such a person may be clever, yet people come to look down on him.

הלל · halal · praise: The verb in hallelujah. Here it is the commendation a community gives a person.
שכל · sekel · good sense: Practical intelligence that leads to acting well. From the same root as wise behavior in Proverbs 1:3.
עוה · avah · bent, twisted: To bend or twist. The mind is not empty but warped, so that it bends what is straight.
לב · lev · heart, mind: The heart. In Hebrew it is the seat of thought and decision, not mainly of feeling.
בוז · buz · contempt: The noun for contempt. Proverbs 1:7 uses the related verb for what fools do to wisdom; here the contempt lands on the twisted.

Proverbs 12:9

It is better to be a nobody who has enough than to act like a big shot and have nothing to eat.

Better to be thought little of and have a servant

This person has no reputation, yet his household is supplied well enough to keep a servant. The substance is there even though the honor is not.

than to play the great man and have no bread.

The other man keeps up a show of importance while his cupboard is empty. The saying ranks them plainly: quiet sufficiency beats hungry pride. What you actually have matters more than what people think you have.

קלה · qalah · be thought little of: To be treated as of small account, to be held light.
עבד · eved · servant, slave: A household servant. Having one shows a modest but real level of means.
כבד · kaved · be heavy, honored: Honor in Hebrew is weight. The form means to make oneself weighty, to act important. It is set against being held light in the first line.
חסר · chaser · lacking: To be short of something. The same word describes the man who lacks sense in verse 11.
לחם · lechem · bread, food: Bread, and so food in general. In this chapter it is the test of whether a way of life works.

The same Hebrew consonants can be read 'and is a servant for himself', that is, does his own work. The old Greek translation read it that way. Either way the point is the same: unimpressive but fed is better than impressive and hungry.

Proverbs 12:10

People who do right take good care of their animals. But even when bad people try to be kind, they are cruel.

A righteous person knows what his animal needs,

Righteousness reaches all the way down to how a man treats creatures that cannot complain or repay him. He notices when the animal is hungry, tired or in pain, and acts on it.

but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

This is a deliberate contradiction in terms. Even at his kindest, the wicked person's care is harsh, because it is governed by what he gets out of it. If the best of him is cruel, the rest needs no description.

ידע · yada · know, care about: Literally he knows. In Hebrew, knowing includes attention and concern, not just awareness.
נפש · nephesh · life, appetite: The living being with its needs and hungers. He knows the nephesh of his beast: how it feels and what it wants.
בהמה · behemah · livestock: Domestic animals such as oxen, donkeys and sheep, the working animals of a farm.
רחמים · rachamim · tender mercy: Related to the word for womb. It is the deepest, most tender kind of feeling for another.
אכזרי · akzari · cruel, merciless: Harsh and without pity. Set right beside rachamim to make the clash as sharp as possible.

Israel's law protected working animals. They rested on the Sabbath (Exodus 23:12), and an ox was not to be muzzled while it threshed grain, so that it could eat as it worked (Deuteronomy 25:4).

Proverbs 12:11

A farmer who works in his field will have plenty of food. Someone who chases after silly dreams has no sense.

Whoever works his own ground will have his fill of bread,

Ordinary, repetitive work on what is in front of you is what actually feeds you. There is nothing exciting in it, and it works.

but whoever runs after empty things has no sense.

The contrast is with chasing schemes, fantasies or idle company that promise more than plowing does. You would expect the line to say he will go hungry; instead it names the cause, a lack of sense, and leaves the hunger to be inferred.

עבד · avad · work, serve: To work or serve. The verb used for working the ground in Genesis 2:5 and 2:15.
אדמה · adamah · ground, soil: The soil. It is his own ground, the plot that belongs to his family.
שבע · saba · be satisfied, full: To eat until full. The verb returns in verse 14.
לחם · lechem · bread, food: The same word as verse 9. The self-important man there lacked it; the worker here has plenty.
ריק · req · empty: Literally empty ones. It can mean empty pursuits or empty people; Judges 9:4 uses it for the idle men Abimelech hired.
חסר לב · chasar lev · lacking heart: Literally lacking heart, meaning short of a mind. A set phrase in Proverbs for someone with no judgment.

Proverbs 28:19 repeats this saying almost word for word, but ends 'will have his fill of poverty' in place of 'lacks sense'.

Proverbs 12:12

Bad people want the things that robbers grab. People who do right are like a plant with good roots that keeps giving fruit.

The wicked person covets what evil people catch,

He looks at what crooks haul in and wants the same for himself. His desire is for the quick take of the trap or the net.

but the root of the righteous keeps giving.

The righteous person is like a rooted plant that produces steadily from within, season after season. The contrast is between grabbing a catch and growing a crop: one depends on prey, the other on a root.

חמד · chamad · covet, crave: The verb of the tenth commandment (Exodus 20:17). It is desire fixed on something that is not yours.
מצוד · matsod · net, catch: From the root for hunting. It can be the hunter's net or what the net brings in.
שרש · shoresh · root: The same picture as verse 3. There the root could not be moved; here it is productive.
נתן · natan · give: The Hebrew says only that the root gives. English versions add an object such as fruit to complete the thought.

The first line is difficult. The word rendered plunder is literally a net, so the line may mean the wicked covet the net of evil men, that is, their methods or their haul. The second line has no object in Hebrew.

Proverbs 12:13

A bad person gets trapped by the wrong things he says. A person who does right gets out of trouble.

In the offense of the lips there is a trap for an evil person,

The liar or slanderer is caught by his own talk. Sinful speech sets a snare, and the one who steps in it is the speaker.

but the righteous gets out of trouble.

The righteous person is not promised a life without tight spots. He comes out of them, because he has not tied himself up with his own words. One is held fast, the other walks free.

מוקש · moqesh · snare, bait trap: In Hebrew this is a noun: a bird trap. The line is literally, in the offense of lips is an evil snare.
פשע · pesha · rebellion, transgression: A strong word for sin: a breach of loyalty, breaking faith with someone.
שפה · saphah · lip, speech: The lips stand for what is said. The word recurs in verses 19 and 22.
יצא · yatsa · go out: Simply to go out. The righteous walks out of the place that holds the other fast.
צרה · tsarah · a tight place: From a root meaning narrow. Distress pictured as being hemmed in.

Proverbs 12:14

Good words bring good things back to the one who says them. And the work your hands do comes back to you too.

From the fruit of his mouth a person eats his fill of good,

Words are pictured as a crop. Good, honest, helpful speech grows into good things that come back to feed the speaker: trust, friendship, a good name.

and what a person's hands have done comes back to him.

The second line adds deeds to words and steps further. Both what you say and what you do are repaid to you in kind.

פרי · peri · fruit, produce: What something naturally produces. Speech has a harvest just as a field does.
פה · peh · mouth: The Hebrew says mouth: the fruit of a man's mouth.
שבע · saba · be satisfied, full: The verb of verse 11. The worker is filled with bread from his ground; the speaker is filled with good from his mouth.
גמול · gemul · dealing, repayment: What one has dealt out to others, and so what is due in return.
שוב · shuv · turn back, return: The ordinary verb for coming back. What goes out from the hands comes home.

The Hebrew text has two traditional readings of the last verb. As written it is 'will return to him'; as read aloud it is 'he will return it to him', which makes God the one who repays.

Proverbs 12:15

A fool is always sure his own way is right. A wise person listens to what others tell him.

A fool's road looks straight to him,

The fool checks his course only against his own judgment, so it always passes. His problem is not that he doubts himself but that he never does.

but the one who listens to advice is wise.

The wise person is defined by a habit, not by a quantity of knowledge: he lets others check his course. The contrast is between a closed loop and an open ear.

דרך · derek · road, way of life: A road, and so the direction of a life.
אויל · evil · stubborn fool: The fool who has decided not to be taught (Proverbs 1:7). His stubbornness, not his intelligence, is the issue.
ישר · yashar · straight: Straight or level. The word for the upright in verse 6, here only as the fool's opinion of himself.
שמע · shama · hear and heed: To hear in the sense of taking it in and acting on it.
עצה · etsah · counsel: Considered advice from someone else.
חכם · chakam · wise, skilled: Skilled at living. The verse makes taking advice the mark of it.

Proverbs 12:16

When a fool gets cross, everybody knows straight away. A careful person stays calm when someone is rude to him.

A fool's irritation is known the same day,

When a fool is provoked, everyone finds out immediately. He has no gap between feeling it and showing it.

but a shrewd person covers over an insult.

The sensible person, when insulted, does not react on the spot. He lets it pass or deals with it later, and so the insult does not grow into a fight. The contrast is in timing and self-control, not in whether they feel the sting.

כעס · ka'as · vexation, irritation: Being provoked and aggrieved, more than rage itself.
ביום · bayyom · on the day: Literally on the day, meaning that very day. Nothing is held overnight.
ערום · arum · shrewd: The adjective from ormah (Proverbs 1:4). Shrewd in the good sense: someone who thinks before reacting.
כסה · kasah · cover: To cover. The same verb comes back in verse 23, where the shrewd person covers what he knows.
קלון · qalon · insult, disgrace: Disgrace or a slight. Here it is the insult he has received, which he chooses not to display.

Proverbs 12:17

When an honest person tells what happened, you hear the truth. A liar tells a story that tricks everyone.

Whoever breathes out what is reliable declares what is right,

The setting is a court. A witness whose ordinary speech is dependable gives testimony that leads to a just verdict. What comes out under oath matches what he is the rest of the time.

but a lying witness declares deceit.

The false witness produces the opposite: a deception that will mislead the judges. A person's testimony is only as good as his character.

פוח · puach · breathe out: To breathe or blow out. Proverbs uses it several times for testimony, as something a person exhales as naturally as breath.
אמונה · emunah · faithfulness, reliability: From the root of amen. Firmness, dependability. It is truth as something you can lean on.
צדק · tsedeq · what is right: What matches the right standard. In court, the just outcome.
עד שקרים · ed sheqarim · witness of lies: Literally a witness of lies. Sheqer is falsehood, something with no reality behind it.
מרמה · mirmah · deceit, fraud: The word of verse 5. What the wicked plan in private comes out in court.

Israel's courts had no forensic evidence. Cases were decided on the word of witnesses, at least two of them (Deuteronomy 19:15), so a false witness could cost an innocent person property or life. The ninth commandment addresses exactly this.

Proverbs 12:18

Some people speak without thinking, and their words cut like a sword. But the words of wise people make hurts better.

There is one whose blurted words are like sword stabs,

Some people talk without thinking, and what they say goes into others like a blade. The speaker may not even intend it; carelessness is enough to wound.

but the tongue of the wise is healing.

Wise speech does the reverse. It mends what has been cut, and by implication it is considered, not blurted. The same organ can be a weapon or a medicine.

בטה · batah · blurt, speak thoughtlessly: To talk without thought. Leviticus 5:4 uses it for a rash oath, and Psalm 106:33 for Moses' rash words.
מדקרה · madqerah · stab, piercing: From a verb meaning to pierce through. The plural pictures repeated stabs.
חרב · cherev · sword: The standard weapon of close combat.
לשון · lashon · tongue: The tongue stands for a person's speech.
מרפא · marpe · healing, remedy: From rapha, to heal. A cure or restoration to health.

Proverbs 12:19

True words last for ever. A lie lasts only a moment before it is found out.

A truthful lip stands firm forever,

What is true does not need to be revised or defended with further stories. It stays said, and the person who said it stays credible.

but a lying tongue lasts only as long as a blink.

A lie works for a moment and then is found out. The contrast is entirely about time: permanence against an instant.

אמת · emet · truth, firmness: Truth in the sense of what is solid and holds. From the same root as emunah in verse 17.
שפה · saphah · lip, speech: Singular in Hebrew: a lip of truth.
כון · kun · be made firm: The verb of verse 3. No one is made firm by wickedness, but truthful speech is.
שקר · sheqer · falsehood: What is false and so has nothing behind it.
רגע · raga · blink, instant: The Hebrew phrase is literally while I blink. It is the shortest length of time the language can picture.

The Hebrew plays on one sound. 'Forever' is la'ad and 'only until' is ve'ad, so the two lines turn on the same syllable with opposite meanings.

Proverbs 12:20

People who plan bad things have hearts full of lies. People who help others get along have hearts full of joy.

Deceit is in the heart of those who plot harm,

People who plan to hurt others have to live with deceit inside them. It may also be that they deceive themselves about how it will end.

but those who counsel peace have joy.

You expect the opposite of deceit to be honesty, and the line gives joy instead. People who work for the wellbeing of others carry gladness inside them, where the plotters carry only their fraud.

מרמה · mirmah · deceit, fraud: Third time in the chapter (verses 5 and 17). Here it is located in the heart.
לב · lev · heart, mind: The place where plans are made.
חרש · charash · plow, engrave, devise: The verb for plowing a field and for a craftsman cutting metal. Applied to plans, it means working them out with care.
יעץ · ya'ats · advise: The verb behind etsah, advice, in verse 15. Those who advise toward peace.
שלום · shalom · wholeness, wellbeing: More than the absence of conflict: things being whole and well between people.
שמחה · simchah · gladness: Gladness. The related verb appears in verse 25.

Proverbs 12:21

The harm that wrong brings does not land on people who do right. But bad people get trouble, and plenty of it.

No trouble is allowed to fall on the righteous,

This states the general rule the wisdom teachers observed: the harm that wrongdoing brings does not land on the one who does right. It is a proverb, a statement of how things normally go, not a guarantee against all suffering, as the book of Job shows.

but the wicked are full of misfortune.

The wicked get their fill of exactly what the righteous are spared. Their own conduct keeps producing trouble for them.

און · aven · trouble, mischief: A word that covers both wrongdoing and the misery it causes.
צדיק · tsaddiq · one in the right: The person who does right by God and others.
רשע · rasha · one in the wrong: The guilty person, the standing opposite of the tsaddiq throughout the chapter.
מלא · male · be full: To be full. Elsewhere in the chapter people are filled with bread and with good; the wicked are filled with trouble.
רע · ra · bad, harm: The broad word for what is bad, covering both evil done and misfortune suffered.

Proverbs 12:22

God hates lying. He is delighted with people who keep their word.

Lying lips are detestable to the LORD,

Lying is not treated as a small social fault. It is put in the category of things God finds repulsive.

but those who act faithfully are His pleasure.

The contrast is not with people who merely say true things but with people who do what is dependable. Honesty is a way of acting. Such people are what God is pleased with, the same word as the favor of verse 2.

שקר · sheqer · falsehood: The word of verses 17 and 19.
שפה · saphah · lip, speech: Lips of falsehood: speech that is false.
תועבה · to'evah · something detestable: The strongest term of rejection in the Old Testament, used for idolatry and for dishonest scales (Proverbs 11:1).
יהוה · YHWH · God's covenant name: God's personal name. He is named twice in the chapter, here and in verse 2, both times as the one whose approval matters.
אמונה · emunah · faithfulness, reliability: Literally doers of emunah. The word of verse 17, now as something practised.
רצון · ratson · pleasure, acceptance: The same word as favor in verse 2.

Proverbs 12:23

A careful person does not show off what he knows. A fool's silly thoughts come spilling out for everyone to hear.

A shrewd person keeps what he knows covered,

This is not about hiding truth from people who need it. The sensible person does not parade his knowledge; he waits for the right time and says only what is needed.

but the heart of fools shouts out folly.

Fools cannot hold anything in. Their mind announces its foolishness like a herald, so they expose themselves every time they open their mouths. One has knowledge and is quiet; the other has only folly and is loud.

ערום · arum · shrewd: The shrewd person of verse 16.
כסה · kasah · cover: The verb of verse 16. There he covered an insult; here he covers his knowledge. In both he controls what comes out.
דעת · da'at · knowledge: The knowledge that verse 1 said comes from loving correction.
לב · lev · heart, mind: The fool's mind does the speaking. Nothing stands between what he thinks and what he says.
כסיל · kesil · dull fool: The thick, self-confident fool. A different word from the fool of verses 15 and 16.
קרא · qara · call out: To call aloud, as a herald does.
אולת · ivvelet · folly: The noun from the same root as evil, the stubborn fool.

Proverbs 12:24

Hard workers end up in charge. Lazy people end up having to work for somebody else.

The hand of the diligent will be in charge,

People who work hard and carefully end up with responsibility and authority. The hand that works becomes the hand that directs.

but the slack hand will be put to forced labor.

The lazy person does not escape work. He ends up doing it anyway, under someone else's orders and for someone else's benefit. The irony is that avoiding effort leads to the hardest kind of labor.

יד · yad · hand: The hand stands for a person's work and power to act.
חרוץ · charuts · sharp, diligent: From a root meaning to cut or to decide. The diligent person is keen and decisive in his work.
משל · mashal · rule, govern: To have authority over others.
רמיה · remiyyah · slackness: Looseness, like a bow with no tension in it. The word returns in verse 27.
מס · mas · labor gang: Compulsory unpaid labor imposed by a ruler.

Forced labor was the lot of conquered peoples and, at times, of a king's own subjects. Solomon raised labor gangs for his building projects (1 Kings 5:13 and 9:21). It was the bottom of working life.

Proverbs 12:25

Worry is like a heavy load on your heart. One kind word can make you glad again.

Worry in a person's heart bows it down,

Anxiety is described as a weight pressing on the inner person until it stoops. The saying takes inner distress seriously as a real burden.

but a good word makes it glad.

One kind, well-chosen word from someone else can lift the weight. It fits the theme of the section: speech has power, and here the power is to raise a person up.

דאגה · de'agah · worry, dread: Anxious care about what may happen.
לב · lev · heart, mind: The inner person, where the worry sits.
שחה · shachah · bow down: To make something stoop or bend low.
דבר טוב · davar tov · a good word: A kind or encouraging thing said. Davar is the word of verse 6, where the words of the wicked were an ambush.
שמח · samach · make glad: To cause to rejoice. In Hebrew the two verbs of this verse rhyme, tying the weight and its relief together.

Proverbs 12:26

A person who does right shows a friend the good way to go. The way bad people live gets them lost.

The righteous person searches out the way for his neighbor,

As NASB reads it, the righteous person is someone others can follow safely. He looks carefully at where a path goes, and his neighbor benefits.

but the road of the wicked makes them wander.

The wicked have no such guide. Their own way of living is what misleads them, and they end up lost. One gives direction; the others cannot even keep their own.

צדיק · tsaddiq · one in the right: The righteous person, here in relation to those around him.
רע · rea · neighbor, companion: A friend, companion or fellow member of the community.
דרך · derek · road, way of life: The road of verse 15. The fool thought his was straight; this one leads astray.
תעה · ta'ah · wander, stray: To wander off the path, as a lost sheep does. The form means to cause to wander.

The first line is one of the hardest in the chapter. The verb may come from a root meaning to search out or explore, which gives either 'is a guide to his neighbor' or 'chooses his friends with care'. Versions differ, and the Hebrew allows both.

Proverbs 12:27

A lazy hunter does not even cook what he catches. Being a hard worker who finishes the job is worth more than treasure.

A slack man never roasts his game,

The lazy person does not finish. Either he never catches anything to cook, or he catches it and cannot be bothered to prepare it, so the effort is wasted.

but diligence is a person's valuable wealth.

The real asset is not what a person owns but the habit of seeing work through. That quality is worth more than any single catch, because it turns what you have into something of use.

רמיה · remiyyah · slackness: The word of verse 24. Hebrew names the quality in place of the person: slackness does not roast its game.
חרך · charak · roast, singe: The verb occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. The meaning roast is taken from a related Aramaic word for singeing (Daniel 3:27).
ציד · tsayid · game, hunting: Animals taken in the hunt, like the game Esau brought Isaac in Genesis 27.
יקר · yaqar · rare, valuable: Costly, rare, highly valued.
הון · hon · wealth: Wealth or goods.
חרוץ · charuts · sharp, diligent: The word of verse 24, there describing the hand that will rule.

The word order of the second line is unusual in Hebrew and can also be read 'the wealth of a diligent person is valuable'. The sense is close either way: diligence, not luck in the hunt, is where worth lies.

Proverbs 12:28

Doing what is right is the road to life. You will not find death on that path.

On the road of righteousness there is life,

The chapter ends by stating where the righteous way goes. Life here means full, secure, lasting life, not merely staying alive.

and along that path there is no death.

The second line says the same thing from the other side and goes a step further. It does not just say the road is good; it says death is not found on it.

ארח · orach · path, course: A path or course of life. A near synonym of derek.
צדקה · tsedaqah · righteousness: Right conduct toward God and people. The quality that makes someone a tsaddiq.
חיים · chayyim · life: Life in its fullness. Proverbs uses it for wellbeing and length of days under God's blessing.
נתיבה · netivah · trodden track: A beaten track. The Hebrew here joins derek and netivah: the way of its path.
מות · mavet · death: The Hebrew is the compact phrase no-death, which some hear as a hint of life beyond death.

The second line is debated. As pointed, the Hebrew reads 'no death'. With different vowels the same letters read 'to death', and the ancient versions took it that way: there is another path that leads to death. NASB follows the Hebrew as pointed.