Proverbs 26:23

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Old Testament Proverbs 1

Proverbs 26:23 כֶּ֣סֶף סִ֭יגִים מְצֻפֶּ֣ה עַל־ חָ֑רֶשׂ שְׂפָתַ֖יִם דֹּלְקִ֣ים וְלֶב־ רָֽע׃

(Masoretic Text, Bomberg Edition, 1525)

Proverbs 26:23 Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross.

(King James Version, Pure Cambridge Edition)

Proverbs 26:23 Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross.

(King James Version 2016 Edition)

Interlinear

Commentary

Postherd

Potsherd in the Oxford English Dictionary (O.E.D.) of 1913 [1]

Potsherd is from two words: Pot and sherd. Postherd is a fragment of pottery. In specialized usage sherd is preferred over the more common spelling shard.

From pot +‎ sherd, from pot, pote, potte (“a container, pot, vessel; especially an earthenware vessel”) (from late Old English pot, pott (“a pot”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *budn- (“a type of vessel”)) + sherd (“piece of fired clay or broken earthenware; potsherd”) (from Old English sceard (“a shard, sherd”), from Proto-Germanic *skardą (“a nick, notch”)).

(often archaeology) A piece of ceramic from pottery, often found on an archaeological site.

Synonyms: shard, sherd

1632, Edward Reynoldes [i.e., Edward Reynolds], “Verse 2”, in An Explication of the Hvndreth and Tenth Psalme: […], London: Imprinted by Felix Kyngston for Robert Bostocke, […], OCLC 19880643, page 149:

[W]ho can deny but that the rod of Gods mouth is indeed Virga virtutis, a rod of strength, an iron rod, able to deale with all humane reaſonings, as a hammer with a potſherd, which though to the hand of a man it may feele as hard as a rocke, yet is too brittle to endure the blow of an iron rod?

1720, [Thomas Boston], “State II, Namely, The State of Nature, or of Entire Deprivation”, in Human Nature in Its Four-fold State: […], Edinburgh: Printed by Mr. James McEuen and Company, […]; Michael Boston, editor, Human Nature in Its Fourfold State, […], new edition, Falkirk, Stirlingshire: Printed and sold by Patrick Mair, 1784, OCLC 745149065, head I (The Sinfulness of Man’s Natural State), page 85:

Job took a potſherd to ſcrape himself, becauſe his hands were as full of boils as his body: This is the caſe of thy corrupt ſoul: not to be recovered but by Jeſus Chriſ, whoſe ſtrength was dried up like a potſherd, Pſal[ms] xxii. 15.

1916, E. S. Roberts; E[rnest] A[rthur] Gardner, “Criticism and Interpretation [VIII. 2. Epigraphy.]”, in Leonard Whibley, editor, A Companion to Greek Studies: Edited for the Syndics of the University Press, 3rd revised and enlarged edition, Cambridge: At the University Press, OCLC 490495921, section 737 (Definition and Scope), page 687:

[I]n the case of pottery, it [epigraphy] is usually taken to include graffiti scratched with a sharp point, and even painted inscriptions which are made before firing as part of the design of a vase, but not written documents (ostraka), in which pot-sherds are merely used as a material to write on instead of papyrus.

1950, Alphonse Riesenfeld, “Megalithic Monuments and Megalithic Culture”, in The Megalithic Culture of Melanesia, Leiden: E. J. Brill, OCLC 752624402, page 115:

Speiser, who made excavations on Vao Island found prehistoric potsherds at a depth of 10 inches, and on the surface of the ground also.

2012, Richard A. Freund, Digging through History: Archaeology and Religion from Atlantis to the Holocaust, Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, →ISBN, page 18:

I have been asked about the single most important artifact that I have seen. It is a single broken piece of pottery no bigger than a couple of inches, but its interpretation makes it one of the most significant artifacts in Jewish history. It is an inscribed potshard (a fragment of pottery) from Masada (in Israel) marked with the name "ben Yair." […] While it remains a single potshard marked in ink, it is a powerful symbol of what motivates archaeologists in the field: a simple object that signifies an entire historical event.

Websters 1828 dictionary has:

POT'SHERD, noun A piece or fragment of a broken pot. Job 2:8.

Silver Dross or Glaze?

Some modern scholars claim that the Hebrew כֶּ֣סֶף סִ֭יגִים is mistranslated as "silver dross" and the true reading as revealed in the Ugaritic language should be "gloss".

1382 As if thou wolt ourne a vessel of erthe with foul siluer; Wyclif's Bible
1535 ...a potsherde couered wt syluer drosse. Coverdale Bible
1537 ...a potsherde couered with syluer drosse. Matthew's Bible
1539 ...a potsherde couered with syluer drosse. The Great Bible
1560 As siluer drosse ouerlayde vpon a potsheard... The Geneva Bible
1568 ...a potsharde couered with siluer drosse. The Bishops' Bible
1611 ...a potsheard couered with siluer drosse. King James Version
1769 ...a potsherd covered with silver dross. King James Version - Benjamin Blayney
1898 Silver of dross spread over potsherd... Young's Literal Translation

NASB

1977 Like an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross are burning lips and a wicked heart.
1995 Like an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross are burning lips and a wicked heart.

NIV

1984 Like a coating of glaze over earthenware are fervent lips with an evil heart. NIV
2005 Like a coating of silver dross on earthenware are fervent lips with an evil heart. TNIV
2011 Like a coating of silver dross on earthenware are fervent lips with an evil heart. (NIV2011)

While the 1984 NIV had “a coating of glaze”, the TNIV and NIV 2011 have reverted to the Masoretic text reading of “silver dross”.

NET

26:23 Like a coating of glaze¹ over earthenware are fervent² lips with an evil heart.³

1 tn The traditional translation of “silver dross” (so KJV, ASV, NASB) never did make much sense because the parallel idea deals with hypocrisy – “fervent lips with an evil heart.” But silver dross would not be used over earthenware – instead it is discarded. Yet the MT clearly has “silver dross” (כֶּסֶף סִיגִים, kesef sigim). Ugaritic turned up a word spsg which means “glaze,” and this found a parallel in Hittite zapzaga[y]a. H. L. Ginsberg repointed the Hebrew text to k’sapsagim, “like glaze,” and this has been adopted by many commentators and recent English versions (e.g., NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). The final ם (mem) is then classified as enclitic. See, among others, K. L. Barker, “The Value of Ugaritic for Old Testament Studies,” BSac 133 (1976): 128-29.

2 tn The word translated “fervent” actually means “burning, glowing”; the LXX has “flattering lips” (as if from חָלַק [khalaq] rather than דָּלַק [dalaq]).

3 sn The analogy fits the second line very well. Glaze makes a vessel look beautiful and certainly different from the clay that it actually is. So is one who has evil intent (“heart”) but covers it with glowing speech.

REV

Like a clay vessel covered with silver dross are smootha lips and a wicked heart.

“silver dross.” Some scholars argue from the Ugaritic that this should be translated as “silver glaze,” but many other scholars disagree. There is no necessary reason to change the Hebrew text. The point of the verse is that just as a clay vessel covered in silver dross is made to look valuable but is deceptive, so are smooth lips that conceal a wicked heart.

New World Translation

In the article Ugarit—Ancient City in the Shadow of Baal the JW site says:

At Proverbs 26:23 in the Masoretic text, “burning lips and a wicked heart” are compared to an earthen vessel covered with “silver dross.” A Ugaritic root allows for the comparison to be rendered “like glaze upon a potsherd.” The New World Translation appropriately renders this proverb: “As a silver glazing overlaid upon a fragment of earthenware are fervent lips along with a bad heart.” Watchtower, July 15, 2003

Alfred J. Hoerth

Alfred J. Hoerth taught archaeology at Wheaton College for almost thirty years and directed Wheaton's renowned biblical archaeology program. He has participated in numerous archaeological digs and served as coeditor of Peoples of the Old Testament World. He said:

only recently did Ugaritic linguistic studies allow for restoration of the correct rendering of the proverb... The proverb has regained its contrasting parallelism and meaningful imagery. The retrieval of this verse's intent is a small thing in itself, but is a big thing for those interested in the accuracy of translation.

John Hinton respondedto this claim saying:

Hoerth's contention that this Proverb should be corrected with the aid of an alleged cognate in Ugaritic that means "common clay pot." He also states that this makes sense of the parallelism, which he otherwise was unable to comprehend. The statement that this Ugaritic "correction" of God's Word returns the parallelism to the text is without merit. The point is that decorating something that is without value not something that is common. The purport of the proverb has never been lost on Bible-believing commentators throughout history; only the modern Bible-scoffer and apostate Christian has had difficulty understanding it. The point of the proverb is that putting silver dross, which is a decoration - on a broken piece of pottery is worthless. The piece of pottery is good for nothing, as are the mouths of the wicked, which produce nothing good.[2]

English Bibles

Proverbs 26:23 in the 1583 Geneva Bible

1382 As if thou wolt ourne a vessel of erthe with foul siluer; so ben bolnynge lippis felouschipid with `the werste herte. Wyclif's Bible
1526 Tyndale Bible
1535 Venymous lippes & a wicked herte, are like a potsherde couered wt syluer drosse. Coverdale Bible
1537 Venimous lippes and a wicked herte, are lyke a potsherde couered with syluer drosse. Matthew's Bible
1539 Uenymous lyppes and a wycked herte, are lyke a potsherde couered with syluer drosse. The Great Bible
1560 As siluer drosse ouerlayde vpon a potsheard, so are burning lips, and an euill heart. The Geneva Bible
1568 Burning lippes and a wicked heart, are like a potsharde couered with siluer drosse. The Bishops' Bible
1609 Douay-Rheims Bible
1611 Burning lips, and a wicked heart, are like a potsheard couered with siluer drosse. King James Version
1769 Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross. King James Version - Benjamin Blayney
1898 Silver of dross spread over potsherd, `Are' burning lips and an evil heart. Young's Literal Translation
1902 (The Emphasised Bible also called Rotherham Version (by Joseph Rotherham)
1917 (The Holy Scriptures also called Jewish Publication Society Translation - Max Margolis editor)

External links

Ridiculous KJV Bible Corrections:Nonsense with Ugaritic by John Hinton, Ph.D.

The King James Version 2023 Edition New Testament is now complete and in print format here.

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