Language Studies

Difficult Sayings

Wounds or Tasty Trifles?
Proverbs 18:8; 26:22

"The words of a talebearer are as wounds, And they go down into the innermost parts of the belly." (Proverbs 18:8, KJV)
"The words of a talebearer are like tasty trifles, And they go down into the inmost body." (Proverbs 18:8, NKJV)

How can the text of Proverbs 18:8 (repeated in 26:22) bear such different nuances of meaning? Wounds and tasty trifles, the renderings in the King James Version and its modern revision, are hardly synonyms. Other versions have, "dainty morsels" (JPS, NLT), "choice morsels" (NIV), "delicious morsels" (NRSV), "harmless" (Douay), "smooth" (Stendal, Jubilee Bible 2000), "wounds" (Webster, Young's). Earlier Jewish commentators such as Aquila and the 11th century Spanish Jew Ibn Ezra thought the word meant "secrets" or "soft whisperings" from affinity to נָעַם nâ'am (Strong's #5001) "prophesy", נָעַם nâham (Strong's #5098) "to groan" and נָאֵם nâhêm (Strong's #5276) "to be beautiful [of words]". Kimchi preferred "smooth" or "flattering".

Rashi, the 11th century French Jewish commentator, tried transposing the consonants of the Hebrew word and suggested "to push or press, smite or strike". The ancient Jewish Midrash on Numbers (XVI: 20), commenting on the murmuring of Israel in Numbers 14:1, uses "mighty blows". "Stripes" or "blows" may be suggested by Proverbs 20:30 which also ends "into the inmost body", literally "rooms of the belly". In addition, the reference to Israel's murmuring may be valid since the Hebrew behind "talebearer" is נִרְגָן nir'gân (Strong's #5372) "to murmur, whisper, slander", although this word is only used in Proverbs. Luther translated as, "The words of the slanderer are stripes".

The Hebrew word for "wounds/tasty trifles" in question is מִתְלַהַמִים mith'lahamîym, a hapax legomena - word occurring only once (well twice including the complete repeating of the verse in 26:22). It is the reflexive form of the verb לָהַם lâham / לָהֵם lâhêm (Strong's #3859) which is unused elsewhere and therefore difficult to translate without other contexts and examples of use.

Light from the Arabic laham may suggest that the words are "greedily swallowed down", perhaps by their hearers, eagerly digesting the gossip. Ingenious interpreters have tried to validate the "tasty trifles" rendering by suggesting that the hearing of gossip is "like eating a delicacy (something not everyone else hears). Therefore, like food being digested, gossiped news is assimilated in one's inmost parts (i.e., is retained and remembered)."^F1 McKane, in his Old Testament Library Commentary, says similarly, "The slanderer's wares are tit-bits (literally, ‘food which is gorged') which go down into the inner compartments of the stomach. Slander is hospitably received and welcomed for a long stay. This is an observation on a human flaw - the appetite for evil gossip and the relish with which it is savoured and devoured."^F2

The Greek Old Testament Septuagint offers us few clues as it has a completely different text saying, "Fear casts down the slothful; and the souls of the effeminate [androgenous] shall hunger", according to one English translation of it.

A thorough and scholarly analysis of other historical solutions is provided by Keil and Delitzsch's Commentary on Proverbs.^F3

The older translation of "wounds" does seem strange but fitting though interestingly many Hebrew roots beginning לה l-h have a common meaning embracing "burn, desire, greed, thirst". It seems that the apparent reference to food in the belly in the second half of verse has suggested a culinary translation in the first half. Thus we should translate, cautiously, as, "The words of a talebearer are like things-devoured-greedily; they go down to the inner-store-rooms of the belly". Here, they can become wounds and blows indeed to the speaker, hearer, and one spoken about.

FOOTNOTES:
F1: Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary. (1983-c1985). The Bible knowledge Commentary : An exposition of the scriptures. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
F2: McKane, W., Proverbs, Old Testament Library Commentary, (1970). London: SCM Press, p.519.
F3: Keil, C. F., & Delitzsch, F. (2002). Commentary on the Old Testament. (Vol. 6, Page 13-271). Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.

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