Core Glossary
Core Glossary — Proverbs (Hebrew → Hindi)
Reuse rule: any term already recorded in the baseline translation_memory.json (Romans/Galatians) is reused here exactly, with a note on any contextual divergence in sense/register. New terms are assigned risk tiers using the same Critical/High/Medium/Low framework as the baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json.
A. Terms Reused Exactly from the Baseline (No Deviation Permitted)
| English | Hebrew | Transliteration | Hindi (baseline-fixed) | Risk | Proverbs Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peace | שָׁלוֹם | shalom | शांति | Medium | 3:2; relational covenant well-being, not meditative calm |
| Father | אָב | av | पिता | High | 3:12 simile; reinforces baseline’s personal-Father doctrine |
| Firstfruits | רֵאשִׁית | reshit | पहले फल | Medium | 3:9; guard against karma-fruit/transactional reading |
| Sin / Sinner | חֵטְא / חַטָּא | chet / chatta | पाप / पापी | High | 1:10; moral transgression before a personal God |
| Righteousness (abstract) | צֶדֶק / צְדָקָה | tsedeq / tsedaqah | धार्मिकता | Critical | 14:34 etc.; NEVER धर्म |
| Blessing | בְּרָכָה | berakhah | आशीष | Medium | 10:6,22; NOT आशीर्वाद (reciprocal-favor risk) |
| Wrath (human, contextual reuse) | חֵמָה | chemah | क्रोध | Low-Medium | 15:1; distinguish from baseline’s divine परमेश्वर का क्रोध |
| Curse | מְאֵרָה | me’erah | श्राप | High | 3:33; judicial verdict, not liftable folk-curse |
| Holy Spirit / Spirit (register only) | (רוּח as divine Spirit elsewhere) | ruach | पवित्र आत्मा / आत्मा | Critical/High | See Ch.20 note distinguishing human ruach from divine Person |
| God / the LORD | יהוה / אֱלֹהִים | YHWH / Elohim | परमेश्वर | Critical | Baseline’s god entry already maps יהוה to परमेश्वर; used throughout Proverbs for “the LORD” |
B. New Terms — Doctrine: The Fear of the Lord as the Beginning of Wisdom
| English | Hebrew | Transliteration | Hindi | Risk | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fear of the LORD | יִרְאַת יְהוָה | yir’at YHWH | परमेश्वर का भय | Critical | Thesis term (1:7; 9:10; 31:30). भय risks reading as servile terror/superstitious dread; must convey reverential, relational awe. Theologian review every occurrence. |
| Fear (verb) | יָרֵא | yare | डरना / भय मानना | Critical | 3:7; same guardrail as above |
| Turn away from evil | סוּר מֵרָע | sur mera | बुराई से दूर होना | Medium | 3:7; behavioral fruit of the fear of the LORD |
C. New Terms — Doctrine: Wisdom Personified
| English | Hebrew | Transliteration | Hindi | Risk | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wisdom | חָכְמָה | chokmah | बुद्धि | Critical | Collides with Samkhya/Yoga buddhi-tattva; not self-attained enlightenment |
| Wise (adj.) | חָכָם | chakam | बुद्धिमान | High | 3:7; ironic self-conceit warning |
| Possessed/Acquired (Wisdom’s origin) | קָנָה | qanah | अर्जित किया / रचा | Critical | 8:22; Arian-controversy verse; avoid “created lesser being” and avoid over-realized Christological identity claim |
| Master workman / little child (disputed) | אָמוֹן | amon | निपुण कारीगर | High | 8:30; genuine textual ambiguity, preserve as alternatives_considered |
| Woman Folly (personified) | אִוֶּלֶת | ivvelet | मूर्खता | High | Ch.9; literary foil to personified Wisdom; feminine grammatical gender in Hindi matches Hebrew |
| Tree of life | עֵץ חַיִּים | etz chayim | जीवन का वृक्ष | Medium-High | 3:18; Eden/Revelation 22 connection, avoid over-identifying Wisdom with Christ |
D. New Terms — Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
| English | Hebrew | Transliteration | Hindi | Risk | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teaching/Instruction (parental, NOT Mosaic Law) | תּוֹרָה | torah | शिक्षा | High | 3:1; do NOT use व्यवस्था (baseline reserves this for Mosaic Torah) |
| Commandment | מִצְוָה | mitzvah | आज्ञा | Medium | 3:1; relational parental precept, not ritual injunction |
| Heart | לֵב | lev | मन | Medium-High | 3:1,3; unified moral-volitional-intellectual center; distinguish from Samkhya’s compartmentalized manas |
| Righteous (person) | צַדִּיק | tsaddiq | धर्मी | High | 2:20; distinguish from forbidden धर्म (abstract dharma-duty) |
| Wicked (person) | רָשָׁע | rasha | दुष्ट | Medium | 2:22 |
| Abomination | תּוֹעֵבָה | to’evah | घृणित काम | High | 11:1; God’s moral revulsion, not ritual impurity |
| Way / Path | דֶּרֶךְ / אֹרַח | derekh / orach | मार्ग | Medium-High | 3:6; avoid “one path among several” pluralist reading (cf. jñāna/bhakti/karma mārga) |
| Honor (the LORD, or human honor) | כָּבֵד / כָּבוֹד | kabed / kavod | आदर करना / सम्मान (human); महिमा (divine, baseline reuse) | Medium-High | 3:9; 25:2; keep divine and human registers distinct |
| Boundary marker | גְּבוּל | gevul | सीमा-चिन्ह | Medium | 22:28; social-justice application |
| Name of the LORD | שֵׁם יְהוָה | shem YHWH | परमेश्वर का नाम | Medium | 18:10; relational trust, not mantra-repetition |
E. New Terms — Doctrine: The Contrast of the Wise and the Fool
| English | Hebrew | Transliteration | Hindi | Risk | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knowledge | דַּעַת | da’at | ज्ञान | Critical | Collides with Vedantic liberating jñāna; biblical da’at is relational/moral, preserves subject-object distinction |
| Understanding | בִּינָה | binah | समझ | Medium | 3:5; do not render with विवेक (reserved for baseline conscience term) |
| Discernment | תְּבוּנָה | tevunah | समझ | Medium | Near-synonym of binah; Hindi collapses Hebrew’s rich synonymy — flag translation loss |
| Prudence | עָרְמָה | armah | चतुराई | Medium | Positive sense here; distinguish from deceitful cunning |
| Discretion / scheme (dual sense) | מְזִמָּה | mezimmah | समझदारी (positive) / दुष्ट योजना (negative) | Medium | Context-dependent; single Hindi word insufficient |
| Simple / naive | פֶּתִי | peti | भोला | Medium | Morally neutral, correctable; distinct from kesil/lets |
| Fool (obstinate) | כְּסִיל | kesil | मूर्ख | High | Primary fool-term; keep distinct from peti and lets |
| Fool (morally base) | אֱוִיל / נָבָל | evil / naval | मूढ़ / नीच मूर्ख | Medium | Rarer terms; avoid मूढ़’s Hindu “spiritually unenlightened” resonance without clarifying moral culpability |
| Mocker / Scoffer | לֵץ | lets | ठट्ठा करनेवाला | High | Arrogant, hardened rejection of correction; not a mere “joker” |
| Fear of correction/discipline | מוּסָר | musar | अनुशासन | High | 3:11; loving formation by God, not self-inflicted asceticism (tapasya) nor karmic retribution |
| Reproof/rebuke | תּוֹכַחַת | tokhachat | ताड़ना | High | 3:11-12; keep distinguishable from musar |
F. New Terms — Doctrine: Speech and Self-Control
| English | Hebrew | Transliteration | Hindi | Risk | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tongue | לָשׁוֹן | lashon | जीभ | Low | Central metaphor for speech doctrine throughout |
| Whisperer / gossip | נִרְגָּן | nirgan | कानाफूसी करनेवाला | Low-Medium | 26:20-22 |
| Falsehood / lie | שֶׁקֶר | sheqer | झूठ | Low | Standard |
| Crooked speech | עִקְּשׁוּת פֶּה | ikkeshut peh | टेढ़ी बात | Low-Medium | 4:24 |
G. New Terms — Doctrine: Diligence versus Sloth
| English | Hebrew | Transliteration | Hindi | Risk | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sluggard | עָצֵל | atsel | आलसी | Medium-High | 6:6-11; wise stewardship framing, not merit-accumulation parallel to कर्म-फल |
| Diligent / industrious | חָרוּץ | charuts | मेहनती / उद्यमी | Medium | Wisdom-for-living virtue, not soteriological merit |
| Wealth | עֹשֶׁר | osher | धन / सम्पत्ति | Low | 10:22 |
| Poverty | רֵישׁ / מַחְסוֹר | reish / machsor | कंगाली / दरिद्रता | Low | 10:15 |
H. New Terms — Doctrine: Trust in the Lord’s Providence
| English | Hebrew | Transliteration | Hindi | Risk | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trust (in the LORD) | בָּטַח | batach | भरोसा | High | 3:5; distinct OT lexical item from NT विश्वास (pistis); requires cross-reference governing note, not a contradiction of baseline’s भरोसा rejection for faith/pistis |
| Lean/rely (on) | שָׁעַן | sha’an | सहारा लेना | Low | 3:5; paired with batach |
| Lot (decision-casting) | גּוֹרָל | goral | चिट्ठी / पर्ची | High | 16:33; distinguish from astrology/jyotisha fatalism |
| Steadfast love | חֶסֶד | chesed | कृपा | High | 3:3; OT covenant-loyalty, not NT soteriological अनुग्रह — except at 3:34 (see below) |
| Truth / faithfulness | אֶמֶת | emet | सच्चाई | Medium | 3:3; relational faithfulness, not impersonal cosmic Truth-principle |
| Favor / grace (relational) | חֵן | chen | कृपा (3:4) / अनुग्रह (3:34 only) | Critical | Split rendering required; 3:34 is directly quoted in James 4:6/1 Peter 5:5 as χάρις |
| Good success/insight | שֵׂכֶל טוֹב | sekhel tov | उत्तम बुद्धि | Low-Medium | 3:4; practical good sense, not mystical attainment |
I. Other Load-Bearing Terms (Cross-Doctrine / Anthropology / Eschatology)
| English | Hebrew | Transliteration | Hindi | Risk | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soul / life / appetite | נֶפֶשׁ | nephesh | प्राण | Critical | 13:4,19; NEVER आत्मा — avoid Advaitic ātman=Brahman collision |
| Human spirit | רוּח | ruach | आत्मा (with mandatory note) | High | 20:27; distinguish from both पवित्र आत्मा and Hindu ātman-identity claims |
| Flesh/body (literal, non-technical) | בָּשָׂר | basar | शरीर (with differentiation note) | Medium | 3:8; NOT the baseline’s technical sin-nature flesh doctrine (Romans/Galatians sarx) |
| Sheol (realm of the dead) | שְׁאוֹל | Sheol | अधोलोक | High | 1:12 etc.; NEVER पाताल or नरक (foreign cosmology) |
| Abaddon | אֲבַדּוֹן | Abaddon | अबद्दोन | Medium | 15:11; transliterated, consistent with Revelation 9:11 |
| The dead / shades | רְפָאִים | refaim | मरे हुए लोग | High | 9:18; avoid ancestor-spirit (pitru/preta) connotation |
| Life | חַיִּים | chayim | जीवन | Low-Medium | This-worldly flourishing, not moksha-style release |
| Death | מָוֶת | mavet | मृत्यु | Medium | Not a stage in a reincarnation cycle |
| Vanity / fleeting | הֶבֶל | hevel | व्यर्थ / निष्फल | Medium-High | 31:30; NOT माया (illusion) — impermanence, not unreality |
| A capable/noble wife | אֵשֶׁת חַיִל | eshet chayil | गुणी और समर्थ स्त्री | High | 12:4; 31:10-31; chayil = strength/capability, not mere sexual purity or domestic submissiveness |
| The forbidden/strange woman | אִשָּׁה זָרָה | ishah zarah | पराई स्त्री | High | Chs. 2,5-7,9; moral prohibition, not ethnic xenophobia |
| Proverbs (book title / a proverb) | מִשְׁלֵי / מָשָׁל | Mishlei / mashal | नीतिवचन | Low | Established BSI Hindi Bible title |
J. Risk Summary
| Tier | Count (new Proverbs terms) | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 6 (यिर्ति-भय, बुद्धि, ज्ञान, कणाह/qanah, प्राण/nephesh, चेन-split-3:34) | Human theologian, every occurrence |
| High | 20 | Human theologian |
| Medium | 24 | Native speaker (Medium) / theologian where doctrine-adjacent |
| Low | 10 | Automated review sufficient |
This glossary extends, and never contradicts, the baseline translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json. All Phase 2 Proverbs translation work must load this document alongside the baseline files before segment processing begins.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: परमेश्वर
Transliteration: Parameśvara
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ईश्वर, भगवान
परमेश्वर (Supreme Lord) is the BSI OV standard. ईश्वर is used in some contexts; both are acceptable but परमेश्वर is preferred for doctrinal precision. भगवान has broad Hindu deity usage — avoid. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: renders יהוה/Elohim throughout as ‘the LORD’ — anchors the thesis term परमेश्वर का भय (‘the fear of the LORD’, 1:7; 9:10) and the doctrine ‘Trust in the Lord’s Providence’.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: पवित्र आत्मा
Transliteration: Pavitra Ātmā
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: ब्रह्म, परमात्मा, देव-आत्मा
CRITICAL: Never use ब्रह्म (Hindu Brahman) or परमात्मा alone (Hindu universal Self). पवित्र आत्मा is the personal Holy Spirit — third Person of the Trinity. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: governs the mandatory distinction at 20:27, where रुआह (‘the spirit of man’) denotes the creaturely human spirit illumined BY the LORD, never this divine Person, and never the Hindu ātman.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: परमेश्वर का पुत्र
Transliteration: Parameśvara kā putra
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ईश्वर का अंश, देव-पुरुष
CRITICAL: Full phrase required. Never render as ‘godly man’ or ‘divine person’. Conveys eternal, unique Sonship within the Godhead. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: must be kept sharply distinct from generic पुत्र/बेटा (Proverbs’ ben, 3:1,12) and from Agur’s rhetorical ‘his son’ question (30:4), neither of which is a Christological title and neither of which should be typologically over-read into an explicit Sonship claim.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: देहधारण
Transliteration: dehadhāraṇa
Doctrine: Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: अवतार, देह प्रकटीकरण
CRITICAL: NEVER use अवतार (Hindu avatar/deity-descent). देहधारण = eternal Son permanently taking human nature. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: serves as the guardrail against reading personified Wisdom’s origin language (qanah, 8:22 — ‘possessed/brought forth’) as a Hindu avatar-style subordinate emanation generated by a supreme deity.
Trinity
Approved rendering: त्रिएकता
Transliteration: trieakatā
Doctrine: Trinity
Rejected alternatives: त्रिमूर्ति
NEVER use त्रिमूर्ति (Hindu Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva triad). त्रिएकता = one God in three Persons. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: guards against over-reading Agur’s rhetorical question about God’s ‘name’ and ‘his son’s name’ (30:4) as an explicit proto-Trinitarian statement, and against resolving personified Wisdom (ch. 8) into a fully realized identity-claim with the eternal Son that the Hebrew text does not itself make.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: धार्मिकता
Transliteration: dhārmikatā
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: धर्म, पुण्य, न्याय
CRITICAL: Never use धर्म (Hindu cosmic duty). धार्मिकता = right standing before God received through faith. Not a duty performed. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: reused identically for the abstract noun tsedeq/tsedaqah (14:34 and throughout); distinct from धर्मी (see righteous_person entry), which is the substantive person-term for tsaddiq.
Justification
Approved rendering: धर्मी ठहराया जाना
Transliteration: dharmī ṭaharāyā jānā
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: माफी पाना, पुण्य प्राप्त करना
Compound phrase required. Forensic declaration of right standing. No single-word Hindi equivalent. Never abbreviate. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: this baseline compound already contains धर्मी, the exact word used for Proverbs’ tsaddiq (righteous_person entry); document this connection so translators do not mistake धर्मी itself for a forbidden term related to धर्म.
Wisdom
Approved rendering: बुद्धि
Transliteration: buddhi
Doctrine: Wisdom Personified
Rejected alternatives: ज्ञान (reserved for da’at), प्रज्ञा (invites Buddhist prajñā collision), विवेक (reserved for the NT conscience term)
Original: חָכְמָה
Category: Wisdom
Hebrew chokmah — skill for righteous living, moral discernment, and (chs. 1,8-9) a personified attribute/agent of God rooted in the fear of the LORD (1:7). बुद्धि is also the precise Samkhya/Yoga technical term for the discriminative intellect-faculty (buddhi-tattva). Mandatory translator note at every major personification passage (1:20-33; 8:1-36; 9:1-6) clarifying that biblical chokmah is God’s own gift for God-fearing living, not a self-attained philosophical faculty.
Wisdom Origin Qanah
Approved rendering: अर्जित किया / रचा
Transliteration: arjita kiyā / racā
Doctrine: Wisdom Personified
Rejected alternatives: सृजा (overstates ex nihilo creation), जन्मा (overstates literal begetting)
Original: קָנָה
Category: Wisdom
Proverbs 8:22, qanah — ‘to acquire, possess, bring forth.’ Center of the fourth-century Arian controversy over whether the eternal Word/Son was a created being; doubled in Hindi by an avatar-emanation collision risk (a deity generating a subordinate manifestation). Mandatory theologian review at every occurrence; frame Wisdom primarily as literary personification of God’s own wise creative action, neither asserting a created lesser being nor a fully resolved Trinitarian identity claim the Hebrew text itself does not make.
Fear Of The Lord
Approved rendering: परमेश्वर का भय
Transliteration: Parameśvara kā bhaya
Doctrine: The Fear of the Lord as the Beginning of Wisdom
Rejected alternatives: बस भय (bare भय without the divine object), परमेश्वर का आतंक (implies terror/dread)
Original: יִרְאַת יְהוָה
Category: Fear of the Lord
Hebrew yir’at YHWH — the book’s thesis term (1:7; 9:10) and closing inclusio (31:30). भय in popular Hindi usage denotes servile fear of a deity’s arbitrary wrath, ritual retribution, or superstitious dread of inauspiciousness. Mandatory translator note at every occurrence (1:7,29; 2:5; 3:7; 8:13; 9:10; 10:27; 14:26-27; 15:16,33; 16:6; 19:23; 22:4; 23:17; 31:30) clarifying covenantal reverence flowing from trust (paired with भरोसा, 3:5), never anxious placation of an unpredictable power. Theologian review mandatory every occurrence.
Fear Verb
Approved rendering: भय मानना / डरना
Transliteration: bhaya mānanā / ḍaranā
Doctrine: The Fear of the Lord as the Beginning of Wisdom
Original: יָרֵא
Category: Fear of the Lord
Proverbs 3:7, yare — verb form. Same guardrail as fear_of_the_lord; context must always specify the LORD as object to avoid a generalized superstitious-fear reading rather than covenantal reverence.
Knowledge
Approved rendering: ज्ञान
Transliteration: jñāna
Doctrine: The Contrast of the Wise and the Fool
Rejected alternatives: विवेक (reserved for the NT conscience term), समझ (reserved for binah/tevunah)
Original: דַּעַת
Category: Wise and Fool Contrast
Hebrew da’at — relational, experiential, moral knowledge of God’s ways (1:4,7,22,29; 2:5; 9:10). ज्ञान is the precise Sanskrit/Hindi term for Vedantic jñāna — liberating gnosis dissolving the knower-known distinction between self and Brahman. Biblical da’at YHWH is the exact opposite: relational knowing that presupposes and preserves the Creator-creature distinction. Theologian review mandatory every occurrence.
Know Verb
Approved rendering: जानना / स्वीकार करना
Transliteration: jānanā / svīkāra karanā
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Original: יָדַע
Category: Practical Righteousness
Proverbs 3:6, yada — ‘acknowledge him in all your ways.’ Submitting every ‘way’ to relational acknowledgment of YHWH’s Lordship — not attaining self-realization (jñāna). Pairs with the knowledge/da’at guardrail.
Favor Chen
Approved rendering: कृपा (3:4) / अनुग्रह (3:34 only)
Transliteration: kṛpā / anugraha
Doctrine: Grace/Favor Continuity Between Proverbs and the New Testament
Rejected alternatives: एक ही शब्द (कृपा) दोनों स्थानों पर — a uniform कृपा rendering across both 3:4 and 3:34
Original: חֵן
Category: Providence
Hebrew chen — goodwill/approval shown by a superior; relational social favor at 3:4, but God’s favor toward the humble at 3:34, which the LXX renders with a form directly quoted verbatim by James 4:6 and 1 Peter 5:5 using χάρις (baseline अनुग्रह). Split rendering required within a single chapter: कृपा at 3:4 (non-salvific relational favor), अनुग्रह at 3:34 only. A uniform rendering would create a detectable cross-testament contradiction with the NT citation elsewhere in the combined Language Package library. Theologian review mandatory.
Nephesh Soul
Approved rendering: प्राण
Transliteration: prāṇa
Doctrine: The Nature of the Human Soul and Spirit
Rejected alternatives: आत्मा (Advaitic ātman=Brahman identity collision — absolutely forbidden)
Original: נֶפֶשׁ
Category: Anthropology
Hebrew nephesh — the whole embodied, desiring self, one’s life or appetite (13:4,19), never a disembodied eternal essence. NEVER आत्मा: this would strongly invoke the Hindu ātman doctrine (an eternal, uncreated self ultimately identical with Brahman in Advaita Vedanta), directly contradicting the biblical nephesh, a created, mortal, embodied life-principle contingent on God’s breath (Genesis 2:7). प्राण is the safer default; a translator note is required distinguishing this from both आत्मा-as-eternal-self and from Hindu prana-theory’s own yogic/pranayama associations, which should not be imported either.
High Risk Terms
Father
Approved rendering: पिता
Transliteration: Pitā
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: ब्रह्मा, सृष्टिकर्ता
God as personal Father (Abba). Never use Hindu creator deity names. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: reinforced by the 3:12 simile (‘as a father the son in whom he delights’), where God’s fatherly discipline is grounded in this same personal-Father doctrine, not an impersonal creator-principle.
Grace
Approved rendering: अनुग्रह
Transliteration: anugraha
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: कृपा, दया, वरदान, भाग्य, कर्म-फल, पुण्य
Must convey unmerited favor apart from any human merit. Directly counters karma worldview. कृपा may be used for mercy/compassion in non-grace contexts only. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: Proverbs 3:34’s chen (‘he gives grace to the humble’) is quoted verbatim in the LXX by James 4:6 and 1 Peter 5:5 using χάρις — this SINGLE occurrence must render अनुग्रह (never कृपा) to preserve cross-Testament consistency; chen elsewhere in the same chapter (3:4) renders कृपा. See favor_chen entry.
Faith
Approved rendering: विश्वास
Transliteration: viśvāsa
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: श्रद्धा, आस्था, भरोसा
Trust in a specific person (Christ/God); not generalized religious devotion. Object of faith must always be specified in context. Distinguish from Hindu śraddhā. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: governs the mandatory cross-reference note for भरोसा (Proverbs’ OT batach, 3:5): भरोसा renders OT wisdom-trust in providence, विश्वास remains reserved exclusively for NT saving faith (pistis) — parallel, not competing, vocabularies. भरोसा must never be substituted here for विश्वास.
Law
Approved rendering: व्यवस्था
Transliteration: vyavasthā
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: धर्म, शरीयत, नियम
Torah/Mosaic law. NEVER use धर्म (Hindu dharma). व्यवस्था is established in BSI OV. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: serves as the forbidden substitution for Proverbs’ parental torah-instruction (शिक्षा, 3:1 and throughout). व्यवस्था must NEVER render a father’s/sage’s wisdom-instruction, as this would wrongly import Sinai covenant legal-code weight into non-Mosaic material.
Flesh
Approved rendering: शरीर
Transliteration: śarīra
Doctrine: Sin
Rejected alternatives: देह (in sarx contexts)
Sarx in the technical Romans 7-8 sense. Adjudicated v2: use शरीर for the technical term; in sinful-desire contexts render the full phrase शरीर की अभिलाषाएँ (Romans 13:14). Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: governs the required differentiation note at 3:8, where basar denotes the literal physical body/health with no sin-nature freight — learners must not import the Romans/Galatians flesh-versus-Spirit antithesis into this unrelated wisdom-and-health proverb.
Sin
Approved rendering: पाप
Transliteration: pāpa
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: अधर्म, अशुद्धता
Moral transgression before a personal God. Distinguish from ritual impurity (अशुद्धता) and bad karma. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: reused identically (पाप/पापी) for chet/chattah/chatta’im (1:10 and throughout).
Curse
Approved rendering: श्राप / श्रापित
Transliteration: śrāpa / śrāpita
Doctrine: Atonement
Galatians 3:10,13. The law’s judicial curse-sanction; must read as fixed judicial verdict, never a transferable, ritually-liftable curse. Theologian review every occurrence with a translator note. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: reused identically for me’erat YHWH (3:33, ‘the LORD’s curse is on the house of the wicked’) — the same fixed-judicial-verdict guardrail applies against a liftable folk-curse reading.
Glory
Approved rendering: महिमा
Transliteration: mahimā
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: देव-ज्योति, प्रकाश
God’s radiant presence and honor. Avoid light-metaphors that could conflate with Hindu divine light concepts. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: reused identically for the divine sense of kavod (25:2 and elsewhere); must be kept lexically distinct from ordinary human honor/social esteem (सम्मान/आदर, see honor_human entry).
Wrath Of God
Approved rendering: परमेश्वर का क्रोध
Transliteration: Parameśvara kā krodha
Doctrine: Judgment
Rejected alternatives: बदला
Romans 1:18. God’s settled, righteous judgment against sin; never personal revenge (बदला) or capricious anger. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: governs the required contextual distinction at 15:1, where chemah (‘human anger’) reuses the same Hindi word क्रोध but denotes ordinary human short-temperedness, not this baseline’s Critical/High doctrine of divine judicial wrath.
Sovereignty
Approved rendering: परमेश्वर की संप्रभुता
Transliteration: Parameśvara kī samprabhutā
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: भाग्य, नियति
God’s personal rule; never impersonal fate/karma. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: the governing doctrine for 16:33’s goral (‘the lot’), where a seemingly random mechanical procedure is explicitly subordinated to God’s personal, sovereign control — the opposite of impersonal fate or astrological determinism.
Election
Approved rendering: परमेश्वर का चुनाव
Transliteration: Parameśvara kā cunāva
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: भाग्य, नियति, किस्मत
God’s sovereign personal choice; not karma-determined fate or impersonal destiny. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: extends its भाग्य/नियति/किस्मत forbidden-substitution list to Proverbs 16:33’s lot-casting passage, which must likewise never be read through Hindu astrology (jyotisha) or horoscope-based fatalism.
Providence
Approved rendering: परमेश्वर का विधान
Transliteration: Parameśvara kā vidhāna
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: भाग्य, कर्म का नियम
God’s personal, purposive governance. Never use भाग्य (fate) or karma language. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: directly continuous with the curriculum doctrine ‘Trust in the Lord’s Providence’ (3:1-12; 16:1-9,33; 19:21; 20:24; 21:30-31).
Works Of The Law
Approved rendering: व्यवस्था के काम
Transliteration: vyavasthā ke kāma
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: कर्म
NEVER कर्म for ‘works’ — karma imports merit-accumulation cosmology. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: this same कर्म-avoidance guardrail extends to every diligence/wealth passage (3:9-10; 6:6-11; 10:4,22 and elsewhere), where outcomes must never read as merit-accumulation (कर्म-फल) rather than a personal God’s free blessing on diligent, wise living.
Wise Adj
Approved rendering: बुद्धिमान
Transliteration: buddhimāna
Doctrine: The Contrast of the Wise and the Fool
Original: חָכָם
Category: Wise and Fool Contrast
Hebrew chakam. Used ironically at 3:7 of self-conceited ‘wisdom in one’s own eyes’ — must not be read as an enlightened guru-status achieved by self-effort; the warning targets precisely the opposite of true wisdom rooted in the fear of the LORD.
Master Workman Amon
Approved rendering: निपुण कारीगर
Transliteration: nipuṇa kārīgara
Doctrine: Wisdom Personified
Rejected alternatives: आमोन (bare transliteration, opaque to readers)
Original: אָמוֹן
Category: Wisdom
Proverbs 8:30, amon — lexically disputed: ‘master craftsman/architect’ or ‘little child/nursling.’ Preserve as alternatives_considered rather than silently resolving. If the ‘craftsman’ reading is used, add a secondary note excluding any association with Hindu artisan-deity figures (e.g. Vishvakarma) as a co-creator.
Woman Folly
Approved rendering: मूर्खता
Transliteration: mūrkhatā
Doctrine: Wisdom Personified
Original: אִוֶּלֶת
Category: Wisdom
Proverbs 9:13-18, ivvelet — ‘folly’ personified as a rival woman inviting the naive to her table, contrasted with personified Wisdom’s own banquet (9:1-6). मूर्खता is grammatically feminine in Hindi, matching the Hebrew feminine personification. The two-women/two-houses/two-invitations contrast structure must survive translation intact.
Tree Of Life
Approved rendering: जीवन का वृक्ष
Transliteration: jīvana kā vṛkṣa
Doctrine: Wisdom Personified
Original: עֵץ חַיִּים
Category: Wisdom
Proverbs 3:18, etz chayim — Edenic image (Genesis 2:9; 3:22,24) reapplied to wisdom as a source of flourishing life. Requires a note connecting to Eden and Revelation 22:2’s eschatological tree, without over-identifying personified Wisdom with the person of Christ, an identity claim the text does not itself assert.
Fool Obstinate
Approved rendering: मूर्ख
Transliteration: mūrkha
Doctrine: The Contrast of the Wise and the Fool
Original: כְּסִיל
Category: Wise and Fool Contrast
Hebrew kesil — the obstinate fool who has settled into folly and resists correction; the book’s primary fool-term. Must be kept lexically distinct from भोला (correctable naivety) and ठट्ठा करनेवाला (arrogant scoffing) across chapters 1,10,13,26 and elsewhere, or Proverbs’ moral gradations of folly collapse into one undifferentiated word.
Mocker Scoffer
Approved rendering: ठट्ठा करनेवाला
Transliteration: ṭhaṭṭhā karanevālā
Doctrine: The Contrast of the Wise and the Fool
Rejected alternatives: मज़ाकिया (mere ‘joker’, too soft)
Original: לֵץ
Category: Wise and Fool Contrast
Hebrew lets — the arrogant despiser of correction and instruction, the most hardened fool-type (cf. 9:7-8; 13:1; 15:12). Must not be softened to a mere ‘joker’; must convey contemptuous, willful rejection of correction.
Discipline Musar
Approved rendering: अनुशासन
Transliteration: anuśāsana
Doctrine: Divine Discipline and Formation
Rejected alternatives: तपस्या-शैली आत्म-अनुशासन (self-inflicted ascetic framing)
Original: מוּסָר
Category: Discipline
Hebrew musar — formative, sometimes corrective instruction from a parent, teacher, or God, aimed at moral formation (3:11). Must be read as loving formation administered BY God TO the son, flowing from relationship (v.12), never karmic retribution for accumulated demerit nor a self-inflicted ascetic mortification practice (tapasya). Hebrews 12:5-6 quotes this passage directly; anticipate consistency with any future Hebrews curriculum.
Reproof Tokhachat
Approved rendering: ताड़ना
Transliteration: tāḍanā
Doctrine: Divine Discipline and Formation
Original: תּוֹכַחַת
Category: Discipline
Hebrew tokhachat — rebuke/verbal correction, near-synonym of musar emphasizing the specific corrective act (3:11-12). Must remain distinguishable from अनुशासन (the general formative process) so the verse’s parallelism is not flattened into a single repeated word.
Teaching Torah Parental
Approved rendering: शिक्षा
Transliteration: śikṣā
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Rejected alternatives: व्यवस्था (reserved exclusively by the baseline for the Mosaic Torah/νόμος)
Original: תּוֹרָה
Category: Practical Righteousness
Hebrew torah in its parental-instruction sense — a father’s/sage’s cumulative wisdom-teaching (3:1; 1:8; 4:2; 6:20; 7:2; 13:14; 28:4,7,9; 29:18), NOT the codified Sinai covenant law. Never render with व्यवस्था; doing so would wrongly import Sinai legal-code weight into a father’s wisdom-instruction, collapsing ‘Practical Righteousness in Daily Life’ into legalistic Torah-observance. This distinction is explicit at every occurrence.
Heart Lev
Approved rendering: मन
Transliteration: mana
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Rejected alternatives: हृदय (overly literal/physical, loses the volitional-intellectual sense in ordinary Hindi usage)
Original: לֵב
Category: Anthropology
Hebrew lev — the unified seat of mind, will, and emotion; the whole inner person, not merely intellectual memory (3:1,3; 4:23). Hindi मन is also a precise Samkhya/Yoga technical term for one compartmentalized inner faculty (the sensory-processing mind, distinct from बुद्धि/intellect and अहंकार/ego). Mandatory translator note on first occurrence governing all subsequent occurrences (4:23; 15:13-15; 23:7) clarifying biblical lev as the unified moral-volitional-intellectual center.
Righteous Person
Approved rendering: धर्मी
Transliteration: dharmī
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Rejected alternatives: साधु (ascetic-holy-man connotation)
Original: צַדִּיק
Category: Practical Righteousness
Hebrew tsaddiq — one who lives rightly before God and others (2:20 and throughout). Though धर्मी shares its root with the forbidden धर्म (absolutely excluded by the baseline for the abstract noun ‘righteousness’), धर्मी as a substantive person-term is the long-established Hindi Bible convention across the whole canon — the baseline’s own compound justification term (धर्मी ठहराया जाना) already contains this exact word. धर्मी is retained for tsaddiq while धार्मिकता remains reserved for the abstract noun; document this distinction so translators do not mistake धर्मी for a forbidden term.
Abomination
Approved rendering: घृणित काम
Transliteration: ghṛṇita kāma
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Rejected alternatives: अशुद्ध कार्य (ritual-impurity connotation)
Original: תּוֹעֵבָה
Category: Practical Righteousness
Hebrew to’evah — something morally detestable to God: dishonest business (11:1), the wicked’s sacrifice (15:8; 21:27), perverse conduct. Must convey God’s own moral revulsion, not mere social/cultural distaste or ritual impurity, which would align it with Hindu ashuddhi/purity-taboo categories.
Way Path
Approved rendering: मार्ग
Transliteration: mārga
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Original: דֶּרֶךְ / אֹרַח
Category: Practical Righteousness
Hebrew derekh/orach — a literal road, and metaphorically one’s habitual manner of life/conduct (3:6 and throughout). मार्ग is also the standard Hindi/Sanskrit term for one of the three classical Hindu soteriological margas (jñāna-mārga, bhakti-mārga, karma-mārga), each traditionally held to lead equally to the same liberating goal. Mandatory translator note on every occurrence: biblical ‘way’ describes conduct submitted to the one true God, never one of several parallel, equally valid religious paths.
Curse Lords
Approved rendering: परमेश्वर का श्राप
Transliteration: Parameśvara kā śrāpa
Doctrine: Wealth, Poverty, and Divine Blessing
Original: מְאֵרַת יְהוָה
Category: Practical Righteousness
Hebrew me’erat YHWH — God’s judicial curse-verdict against the wicked household (3:33). Consistent with the baseline Galatians curse entry’s mandatory translator note distinguishing God’s fixed judicial verdict from a liftable folk-ritual curse (श्राप popularly denotes a curse appeasable by counter-ritual).
Sluggard
Approved rendering: आलसी
Transliteration: ālasī
Doctrine: Diligence versus Sloth
Original: עָצֵל
Category: Diligence
Hebrew atsel — habitual, morally culpable laziness, contrasted with the diligent ant (6:6-11). Must be framed as wise stewardship versus foolish self-neglect under God’s created order, never as a merit-accumulation mechanism parallel to कर्म-फल — diligence in Proverbs is wisdom applied under a personal God, not merit earning cosmic reward.
Trust Batach
Approved rendering: भरोसा
Transliteration: bharosā
Doctrine: Trust in the Lord’s Providence
Rejected alternatives: विश्वास (reserved by the baseline exclusively for NT saving faith/pistis)
Original: בָּטַח
Category: Providence
Hebrew batach — whole-being reliance/confidence placed in YHWH’s character, contrasted with self-reliant understanding (3:5). The baseline’s faith entry explicitly rejects भरोसा as an alternative to विश्वास for NT saving faith; however batach is a distinct OT lexical item, and भरोसा is the long-established Hindi Bible rendering of this exact verse (‘यहोवा पर भरोसा रख’). This is not a contradiction but requires a mandatory governing note: भरोसा renders OT wisdom-trust in providence (batach) while विश्वास remains reserved for NT saving trust in Christ (pistis) — parallel, not competing, vocabularies.
Lot Goral
Approved rendering: चिट्ठी / पर्ची
Transliteration: ciṭṭhī / parcī
Doctrine: Divine Sovereignty over Chance and Fate
Rejected alternatives: गोराल (bare transliteration, obscures the concrete, translatable action)
Original: גּוֹרָל
Category: Providence
Hebrew goral — a stone or marked object cast to make a decision (16:33), explicitly subordinated to divine sovereignty rather than chance. Must be carefully distinguished from Hindu astrology (jyotisha) and horoscope-based fatalism; the verse’s point is that even a seemingly random mechanical procedure is under the personal God’s sovereign control — the opposite of impersonal fate or an astrologically determined destiny. Extends the baseline’s guardrail against भाग्य/नियति/किस्मत language.
Steadfast Love Chesed
Approved rendering: कृपा
Transliteration: kṛpā
Doctrine: Covenant Loyalty: Steadfast Love and Faithfulness
Rejected alternatives: अनुग्रह (reserved by the baseline exclusively for NT soteriological charis, except where 3:34 is directly quoted by the NT)
Original: חֶסֶד
Category: Covenant Loyalty
Hebrew chesed — covenant loyalty, kindness, mercy exercised within a covenant relationship (3:3), paired with emet. NOT the Pauline soteriological doctrine of Grace, which the baseline reserves exclusively for अनुग्रह/charis; कृपा is explicitly permitted by the baseline for non-salvific kindness/mercy contexts, and chesed here is precisely such a context. Mandatory cross-reference note distinguishing OT covenant-loyalty chesed (कृपा) from NT unmerited-salvation charis (अनुग्रह) so learners moving between curricula do not perceive a contradiction.
Barns And Vats
Approved rendering: अन्न से भरे भण्डार / नये दाखरस से भरे कुण्ड
Transliteration: anna se bhare bhaṇḍāra / naye dākharasa se bhare kuṇḍa
Doctrine: Wealth, Poverty, and Divine Blessing
Original: אֲסָמִים / יְקָבִים
Category: Wealth
Hebrew asamim / yekavim (3:10) — barns and winepresses filled as a wisdom-blessing outcome. Read in isolation, could be assimilated to the popular Hindi ‘जैसा कर्म वैसा फल’ framework or prosperity-gospel formulas. Requires a translator note stating this is a covenantal wisdom tendency flowing from a personal God’s free favor, not an impersonal cause-effect law operating independently of his will.
Ruach Human Spirit
Approved rendering: आत्मा
Transliteration: ātmā
Doctrine: The Nature of the Human Soul and Spirit
Original: רוּח
Category: Anthropology
Hebrew ruach in its human-spirit sense (20:27, ‘the spirit of man is a lamp of the LORD’) — matches the baseline’s own convention for पवित्र आत्मा (Holy Spirit). Two guardrails mandatory: (1) this ‘spirit of man’ must not be conflated with पवित्र आत्मा, a distinct divine Person — a translator note must mark this as the creaturely human spirit which the LORD illumines; (2) must not be read as asserting Hindu ātman-doctrine (that the human spirit is itself divine/identical with ultimate reality) — the verse’s own logic (God searches and illumines the spirit from outside/above it) presupposes distinctness, not identity.
Sheol
Approved rendering: अधोलोक
Transliteration: adholoka
Doctrine: Sheol and the Realm of the Dead
Rejected alternatives: पाताल (Puranic mythological netherworld with its own deities, nagas, asuras), नरक (Hindu/Buddhist reincarnation-linked punishment-realm)
Original: שְׁאוֹל
Category: Eschatology
Hebrew Sheol — the grave, the shadowy realm of the dead awaiting final resurrection/judgment (1:12; 5:5; 7:27; 9:18; 15:11,24; 23:14; 27:20; 30:16). Must NEVER be rendered पाताल or नरक, either of which would import an entire foreign cosmology. A translator note distinguishing biblical Sheol as a shadowy waiting-state for all the dead — not their final destiny — is required at every occurrence.
Refaim Dead
Approved rendering: मरे हुए लोग
Transliteration: mare hue loga
Doctrine: Sheol and the Realm of the Dead
Rejected alternatives: पितर/प्रेत-सम्बन्धी शब्द (ancestor-spirit vocabulary)
Original: רְפָאִים
Category: Eschatology
Hebrew refaim — the dead/shades, the lifeless inhabitants of Sheol (9:18), a term for mortality’s finality, not active ancestor-spirits with ongoing agency. Must NOT be rendered with any term suggesting ancestor-spirit veneration (pitru/preta concepts prominent in Hindu practice involving ongoing ritual obligations to departed ancestors); this verse warns that folly leads to death, not that active spirits require propitiation.
Hevel Vanity
Approved rendering: व्यर्थ / निष्फल
Transliteration: vyartha / niṣphala
Doctrine: The Fear of the Lord as the Beginning of Wisdom
Rejected alternatives: माया (Hindu/Buddhist ‘illusion,’ implying unreality rather than impermanence)
Original: הֶבֶל
Category: Fear of the Lord
Hebrew hevel — ‘breath, vapor,’ transience/futility/fleetingness (not illusion/unreality), used of beauty’s fading in the book’s closing inclusio (31:30). Must NOT be rendered माया. The biblical point is that beauty is fleeting/impermanent, not unreal — this preserves the verse’s function of returning the whole book to its opening thesis (1:7/9:10), closing the inclusio. Theologian review required given its structural and doctrinal weight.
Forbidden Woman
Approved rendering: पराई स्त्री
Transliteration: parāī strī
Doctrine: Marriage, Family, and Sexual Fidelity
Rejected alternatives: विदेशी स्त्री (risks an ethnic-foreignness/xenophobic reading)
Original: אִשָּׁה זָרָה / נָכְרִיָּה
Category: Family
Hebrew ishah zarah / nokriyah — the seductress figure warned against throughout chapters 2,5-7,9, personified in ch.9 as ‘Woman Folly’ (2:16; 5:3,20; 6:24; 7:5; 9:13-18; 23:27). Must convey the moral prohibition (illicit sexual relationship, marital unfaithfulness) rather than mere ethnic ‘foreignness,’ which could otherwise read as xenophobic rather than a warning against adultery. Flag for theologian review at every occurrence.
Capable Wife
Approved rendering: गुणी और समर्थ स्त्री
Transliteration: guṇī aura samartha strī
Doctrine: Marriage, Family, and Sexual Fidelity
Rejected alternatives: वीरांगना (over-emphasizes martial/heroic sense), भली पत्नी (‘good wife’; flattens chayil to generic domestic virtue, losing the economic-capability and public-strength sense)
Original: אֵשֶׁת חַיִל
Category: Family
Hebrew eshet chayil (12:4; 31:10-31) — an economically active, publicly respected, strong, and morally excellent woman; chayil is the same word used of ‘mighty men of valor.’ A rendering that flattens chayil into mere ‘virtuous’ (implying only sexual/moral purity) or a submissive domestic stereotype (India’s pativratā archetype) loses the text’s actual portrait of an entrepreneurial, publicly capable, strong woman.
Beno Agur Son
Approved rendering: उसके पुत्र का
Transliteration: usake putra kā
Doctrine: The Incomprehensibility of God to Human Wisdom (Agur)
Original: בְּנוֹ
Category: Wisdom
Hebrew beno — Agur’s rhetorical question about God’s unknown name and ‘his son’s’ name (30:4). Must NOT be over-read as an explicit Old Testament proto-Trinitarian statement identifying a divine Son; it is a rhetorical device emphasizing the unknowability/incomprehensibility of God to unaided human questioning (paralleling Job 38). Flag for theologian review to prevent both an over-realized Christological reading and a dismissive under-reading.
Medium Risk Terms
Peace
Approved rendering: शांति
Transliteration: śānti
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: चैन, सुकून
In Romans 5:1 = relational peace with God through justification; not psychological calm. Add note distinguishing from Hindu meditation-peace. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: reused identically for shalom (3:2) — relational covenantal well-being added to the wisdom-keeper, not meditative inner calm.
Firstfruits
Approved rendering: पहले फल
Transliteration: pahale phala
Doctrine: Holy Spirit
Romans 8:23; 11:16; 16:5. Agricultural pledge-of-more-to-come metaphor; guard against any merit or karma-fruit reading. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: reused identically for reshit (3:9, ‘the firstfruits of all your produce’); the same karma-fruit guardrail applies — giving firstfruits is grateful trust, not a transactional payment guaranteeing return.
Blessing Of Abraham
Approved rendering: आशीष
Transliteration: āśīṣa
Doctrine: Covenant
Rejected alternatives: आशीर्वाद (guru/elder reciprocal-favor connotation)
Galatians 3:8-9,14. God’s own gracious initiative extending to the Gentiles through faith, not a reciprocal-favor exchange. Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Proverbs: reused identically for berakhah (10:6,22 and elsewhere); God’s own free initiative toward the righteous, never a reciprocal exchange purchased by religious or economic performance.
Turn From Evil
Approved rendering: बुराई से दूर होना
Transliteration: burāī se dūra honā
Doctrine: The Fear of the Lord as the Beginning of Wisdom
Original: סוּר מֵרָע
Category: Fear of the Lord
Proverbs 3:7, sur mera — the behavioral fruit of fearing the LORD. Moral turning away from wickedness, not ritual avoidance of impurity or inauspiciousness (ashuddhi).
Understanding
Approved rendering: समझ
Transliteration: samajha
Doctrine: Trust in the Lord’s Providence
Rejected alternatives: विवेक (reserved for the NT conscience term, doubling the Vedantic-discrimination collision risk)
Original: בִּינָה
Category: Providence
Proverbs 3:5, binah — one’s own capacity to discern/evaluate, explicitly not to be leaned upon instead of trust in the LORD.
Discernment
Approved rendering: समझ
Transliteration: samajha
Doctrine: The Contrast of the Wise and the Fool
Original: תְּבוּנָה
Category: Wise and Fool Contrast
Hebrew tevunah, near-synonym of binah. Hindi necessarily collapses this Hebrew synonymy into one word; flag for translation-loss footnoting wherever both Hebrew terms co-occur in the same verse (e.g. 2:2-3).
Prudence
Approved rendering: चतुराई
Transliteration: caturāī
Doctrine: The Contrast of the Wise and the Fool
Original: עָרְמָה
Category: Wise and Fool Contrast
Hebrew armah — shrewdness/prudent discernment imparted to the naive (peti); the same root describes the serpent’s craftiness in Genesis 3:1. Note required distinguishing this positive ‘street-smart discernment’ sense from चतुराई’s possible negative cunning/deceit connotation.
Discretion Scheme
Approved rendering: समझदारी / दुष्ट योजना
Transliteration: samajhadārī / duṣṭa yojanā
Doctrine: The Contrast of the Wise and the Fool
Original: מְזִמָּה
Category: Wise and Fool Contrast
Hebrew mezimmah — ‘plan, purpose’; wise discretion (positive) or wicked scheming (negative), context-dependent. A single Hindi word cannot carry both valences; the surrounding clause’s moral polarity must govern the choice.
Simple Naive
Approved rendering: भोला
Transliteration: bholā
Doctrine: The Contrast of the Wise and the Fool
Original: פֶּתִי
Category: Wise and Fool Contrast
Hebrew peti — ‘open, naive, untaught’; morally neutral inexperience, open to either wisdom or folly, correctable rather than hardened. Must be kept lexically distinct from मूर्ख (kesil) and ठट्ठा करनेवाला (lets).
Fool Base
Approved rendering: मूढ़ / नीच मूर्ख
Transliteration: mūḍha / nīca mūrkha
Doctrine: The Contrast of the Wise and the Fool
Original: אֱוִיל / נָבָל
Category: Wise and Fool Contrast
Hebrew evil / naval — rarer, morally-base fool terms. Avoid मूढ़’s Hindu ‘spiritually unenlightened’ resonance without clarifying that the biblical term denotes moral culpability before God, not deficiency of philosophical attainment.
Commandment Mitzvah
Approved rendering: आज्ञा
Transliteration: ājñā
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Original: מִצְוָה
Category: Practical Righteousness
Hebrew mitzvah — a specific directive flowing from the father’s torah-instruction (3:1). Personal, relational parental/divine direction, not a ritual vidhi-vidhān injunction performed to accumulate merit.
Wicked Person
Approved rendering: दुष्ट
Transliteration: duṣṭa
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Original: רָשָׁע
Category: Practical Righteousness
Hebrew rasha — one who lives wickedly, contrasted with tsaddiq throughout the book (2:22 and elsewhere). Standard moral-category term; low collision risk beyond maintaining consistency with the righteous/wicked contrast structure.
Honor Human
Approved rendering: आदर करना / सम्मान
Transliteration: ādara karanā / sammāna
Doctrine: Honor and Glory: Divine and Human Registers
Original: כִּבֵּד / כָּבוֹד (human sense)
Category: Practical Righteousness
Hebrew kibbed/kavod in its human-honor sense — respect toward God (3:9) or another person’s social reputation (25:2; 15:33; 18:12; 22:4; 29:23). Must be kept distinct from महिमा (reserved for explicitly divine radiant glory per the baseline glory entry) so ordinary human social honor is not inflated with reserved divine vocabulary, nor divine honor-language flattened when it legitimately applies to God, as at 3:9.
Boundary Marker
Approved rendering: सीमा-चिन्ह
Transliteration: sīmā-cinha
Doctrine: Justice for the Poor and Vulnerable
Original: גְּבוּל
Category: Justice
Hebrew gevul — a literal property boundary stone (22:28), symbolizing respect for inherited property rights and justice toward the vulnerable. A concrete social-justice application of ‘Practical Righteousness in Daily Life’; teach alongside 14:31; 19:17; 22:22-23 as a coherent social-justice unit.
Name Of The Lord
Approved rendering: परमेश्वर का नाम
Transliteration: Parameśvara kā nāma
Doctrine: The Name and Character of the LORD
Original: שֵׁם יְהוָה
Category: God
Hebrew shem YHWH — God’s revealed name representing his own character and protective presence (18:10, ‘a strong tower’). The tower-refuge is relational trust in a known Person, not a magical formula or mantra (जप/japa) whose repetition alone produces effect.
Blessing Berakhah
Approved rendering: आशीष
Transliteration: āśīṣa
Doctrine: Wealth, Poverty, and Divine Blessing
Rejected alternatives: आशीर्वाद (guru/reciprocal-favor connotation)
Hebrew berakhah (10:6,22 and elsewhere). Reuses the baseline’s blessing_of_abraham rendering exactly (आशीष), chosen there specifically to avoid आशीर्वाद’s guru/reciprocal-favor connotation. God’s own gracious initiative toward the righteous, not a reciprocal exchange for religious performance.
Diligent
Approved rendering: मेहनती / उद्यमी
Transliteration: mehanatī / udyamī
Doctrine: Diligence versus Sloth
Original: חָרוּץ
Category: Diligence
Hebrew charuts, contrasted with atsel throughout. A wisdom-for-living virtue, not a soteriological merit category; keep distinct from any karma-fruit framing of reward.
Whisperer Gossip
Approved rendering: कानाफूसी करनेवाला
Transliteration: kānāphūsī karanevālā
Doctrine: Speech and Self-Control
Original: נִרְגָּן
Category: Speech
Hebrew nirgan — a talebearer who spreads discord through gossip (26:20-22). Reinforces ‘Speech and Self-Control’; low independent syncretism risk.
Crooked Speech
Approved rendering: टेढ़ी बात
Transliteration: ṭeḍhī bāta
Doctrine: Speech and Self-Control
Original: עִקְּשׁוּת פֶּה / פֶּה עִקֵּשׁ
Category: Speech
Hebrew ikkeshut peh / peh ikkesh — deceptive, twisted speech to be put away (4:24). Anticipates the chapter 6 ‘seven abominations’ speech-sins; keep concrete, not abstracted into a generic dishonesty category.
Hates Lord
Approved rendering: यहोवा घृणा करता है / परमेश्वर घृणा करता है
Transliteration: Yahovā ghṛṇā karatā hai / Parameśvara ghṛṇā karatā hai
Doctrine: Speech and Self-Control
Original: שָׂנֵא (YHWH)
Category: Practical Righteousness
Hebrew sane (YHWH) — ‘the seven things the LORD hates’ (6:16-19). Conveys God’s own personal moral revulsion at specific behaviors (haughty eyes, lying tongue, false witness, sowing discord), not a ritual taboo/impurity list.
Truth Faithfulness Emet
Approved rendering: सच्चाई
Transliteration: saccāī
Doctrine: Covenant Loyalty: Steadfast Love and Faithfulness
Rejected alternatives: सत्य (invites association with the impersonal Vedantic satya/cosmic Truth-principle)
Original: אֶמֶת
Category: Covenant Loyalty
Hebrew emet — factual truth and relational trustworthiness together, paired with chesed as twin covenant virtues (3:3). Must remain relational faithfulness, not the impersonal cosmic Truth-principle of Vedantic satya.
Good Success
Approved rendering: उत्तम बुद्धि
Transliteration: uttama buddhi
Doctrine: Trust in the Lord’s Providence
Original: שֵׂכֶל טוֹב
Category: Providence
Hebrew sekhel tov (3:4) — sound practical judgment yielding good outcomes. Avoid a rendering suggesting attained enlightenment; this is practical good sense before God and people, not mystical insight.
Son Ben
Approved rendering: पुत्र / बेटा
Transliteration: putra / beṭā
Doctrine: Divine Discipline and Formation
Original: בֵּן
Category: Family
Hebrew ben — generic ‘son/child,’ the sage’s disciple, and by simile (3:12) any child under a father’s discipline. Must be kept distinct from the baseline’s Critical son_of_god doctrine (Christ’s unique eternal Sonship); this is a generic filial relationship, not a Christological title, and should not be typologically over-read without explicit theological framing.
Love Ahav
Approved rendering: प्रेम करना
Transliteration: prema karanā
Doctrine: Divine Discipline and Formation
Original: אָהַב
Category: Discipline
Root of ahavah (‘love’); establishes that God’s discipline flows from love (3:12) — the interpretive key guarding against a punitive/karmic misreading of the whole discipline unit (3:11-12).
Flesh Body Basar
Approved rendering: शरीर
Transliteration: śarīra
Doctrine: The Nature of the Human Soul and Spirit
Original: בָּשָׂר
Category: Anthropology
Hebrew basar (3:8) — the literal physical body/health, NOT the technical Pauline sarx (fallen self-reliant human nature) that the baseline’s Critical/High flesh doctrine (Romans 7-8, Galatians 5) governs. Requires a differentiation note so learners do not import the Romans/Galatians flesh-versus-Spirit antithesis into an unrelated wisdom-and-health proverb.
Abaddon
Approved rendering: अबद्दोन
Transliteration: Abaddona
Doctrine: Sheol and the Realm of the Dead
Original: אֲבַדּוֹן
Category: Eschatology
Hebrew Abaddon — ‘destruction,’ a poetic near-synonym/personification paired with Sheol, emphasizing God’s omniscient sovereignty even over the realm of the dead (15:11). Transliterated, consistent with the established Hindi rendering of the same proper noun in Revelation 9:11.
Wife Of Youth
Approved rendering: तेरी जवानी की पत्नी
Transliteration: terī javānī kī patnī
Doctrine: Marriage, Family, and Sexual Fidelity
Original: אֵשֶׁת נְעוּרֶיךָ
Category: Family
Hebrew eshet ne’urekha (5:15-18) — ‘the wife of your youth,’ a positive image of covenant marital fidelity, contrasted with the forbidden woman. Supports ‘Practical Righteousness in Daily Life’ applied to marriage.
Humble Anavim
Approved rendering: नम्र
Transliteration: namra
Doctrine: Grace/Favor Continuity Between Proverbs and the New Testament
Original: עֲנָוִים
Category: Providence
Hebrew anavim — the humble, to whom God gives grace/favor (3:34). Pairs with the favor_chen entry’s mandatory NT-quotation guardrail.
Wrath Human Chemah
Approved rendering: क्रोध
Transliteration: krodha
Doctrine: Speech and Self-Control
Original: חֵמָה
Category: Speech
Hebrew chemah — human anger (15:1). Reuses the baseline’s क्रोध (established there for परमेश्वर का क्रोध, divine judicial wrath) but applied here to human anger; context (human vs. divine subject) must be clear so learners do not conflate human short-temperedness with the baseline’s Critical/High doctrine of divine judicial wrath.
False Just Balance
Approved rendering: छल का तराजू / सच्चा तराजू
Transliteration: chala kā tarājū / saccā tarājū
Doctrine: Justice for the Poor and Vulnerable
Original: מֹאזְנֵי מִרְמָה / פֶּלֶס
Category: Justice
Hebrew moznei mirmah / peles (11:1; 16:11) — a false balance versus a just scale, honest commercial dealing. Concrete commercial-justice imagery supporting honest dealing as an expression of the fear of the LORD, not merely secular civic ethics.
Life Chayim
Approved rendering: जीवन
Transliteration: jīvana
Doctrine: Trust in the Lord’s Providence
Original: חַיִּים
Category: Eschatology
Hebrew chayim — this-worldly flourishing life, the positive outcome of wisdom (3:2,18,22 and throughout). This-worldly, embodied flourishing, not a moksha-style release from finite existence; keep continuous with the length_of_days entry.
Death Mavet
Approved rendering: मृत्यु
Transliteration: mṛtyu
Doctrine: Sheol and the Realm of the Dead
Original: מָוֶת
Category: Eschatology
Hebrew mavet — death, the consequence of folly/sin, contrasted with life throughout (chs. 5,7,9,14). Not a stage in a reincarnation cycle; a genuine terminus warned against, consistent with the Sheol entry’s guardrails.
Low Risk Terms
Proverbs Title
Approved rendering: नीतिवचन
Transliteration: nītivacana
Doctrine: Wisdom Literature Genre
Rejected alternatives: मिशलेइ (bare transliteration of מִשְׁלֵי)
Original: מִשְׁלֵי / מָשָׁל
Category: Wisdom Literature
Established BSI Hindi Bible title for Proverbs, and standard rendering of mashal (‘a proverb/comparison’, 1:1,6; 10:1; 25:1). Low doctrinal risk; consonant with India’s own native gnomic/wisdom-saying literary traditions (subhashita, niti-shastra).
Wealth
Approved rendering: धन / सम्पत्ति
Transliteration: dhana / sampatti
Doctrine: Wealth, Poverty, and Divine Blessing
Original: עֹשֶׁר
Category: Wealth
Hebrew osher (10:22). Standard vocabulary; see the doctrine-level karma-fruit caution recorded for wealth/blessing passages.
Poverty
Approved rendering: कंगाली / दरिद्रता
Transliteration: kaṃgālī / daridratā
Doctrine: Wealth, Poverty, and Divine Blessing
Original: רֵישׁ / מַחְסוֹר
Category: Wealth
Hebrew reish/machsor (10:15). Standard vocabulary; no independent syncretism risk beyond the wealth/blessing doctrine-level note.
Tongue
Approved rendering: जीभ
Transliteration: jībha
Doctrine: Speech and Self-Control
Original: לָשׁוֹן
Category: Speech
Hebrew lashon — the central metaphor for speech throughout this doctrine. Standard vocabulary.
Falsehood
Approved rendering: झूठ
Transliteration: jhūṭha
Doctrine: Speech and Self-Control
Original: שֶׁקֶר
Category: Speech
Hebrew sheqer — lying/falsehood. Standard vocabulary; no significant syncretism risk.
Lean Rely
Approved rendering: सहारा लेना
Transliteration: sahārā lenā
Doctrine: Trust in the Lord’s Providence
Original: שָׁעַן
Category: Providence
Hebrew sha’an — to lean/rely upon, paired with batach in the prohibition against relying on one’s own understanding (3:5). Low independent risk; functions as a paired verb.
Length Of Days
Approved rendering: दीर्घायु
Transliteration: dīrghāyu
Doctrine: Trust in the Lord’s Providence
Original: אֹרֶךְ יָמִים
Category: Providence
Hebrew orekh yamim (3:2) — long life as a this-worldly wisdom-blessing. Must not be read as an unconditional guarantee (cf. Ecclesiastes’ qualifications), nor conflated with moksha-style release from finite existence — Proverbs affirms embodied, temporal flourishing.
Tablet Of Heart
Approved rendering: हृदय की पटिया पर लिखना
Transliteration: hṛdaya kī paṭiyā para likhanā
Doctrine: Covenant Loyalty: Steadfast Love and Faithfulness
Original: לוּח לֵב
Category: Practical Righteousness
Hebrew luach lev (3:3) — covenant-inscription imagery for internalizing chesed and emet, echoing the stone tablets of Exodus. Keep the inscription-metaphor concrete; do not abstract into ‘inner realization’ or mystical attainment.
Violence Chamas
Approved rendering: हिंसा
Transliteration: hiṃsā
Doctrine: Justice for the Poor and Vulnerable
Original: חָמָס
Category: Justice
Hebrew chamas — violence (3:31 and elsewhere). Standard vocabulary; low independent risk. Note: this Hindi word coincides with the classical Hindu/Jain virtue-term ahimsa’s root (non-violence); no collision risk since the biblical usage simply names the vice condemned.
Anxiety Deagah
Approved rendering: चिंता
Transliteration: cintā
Doctrine: Trust in the Lord’s Providence
Original: דְּאָגָה
Category: Providence
Hebrew de’agah — anxiety, contrasted with a good word that cheers (12:25). Standard vocabulary; low independent syncretism risk.
Referenced passages