Core Glossary
08 — Core Glossary: Proverbs (English → Mandarin)
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md across the whole of Proverbs (chs. 1–31), with proposed Mandarin renderings, risk tiers, and doctrine mapping. Terms already fixed in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json are marked [BASELINE — REUSE EXACTLY] and must not be altered. All new terms below are proposed additions to translation memory, pending Phase 1 Step 8 sign-off and theologian review for Critical/High items, per the baseline’s escalation rules.
Legend
- Risk: Critical / High / Medium / Low (definitions per baseline
doctrine_risk_registry.json) - Status: BASELINE (reuse exactly) / NEW (propose for translation memory)
1. Foundational Divine-Name and Core Doctrine Terms
| Term (EN) | Hebrew (translit.) | Mandarin | Risk | Status | Doctrine | Chapters | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| God (generic) | אֱלֹהִים (Elohim) | 神 | Critical | BASELINE | — | 2:5; 3:4 | Reuse baseline 神 exactly; never 上帝/天/老天爷 per baseline rule. |
| The LORD (covenant name) | יְהוָה (YHWH) | 耶和华 | Critical | NEW | Fear of the Lord; Trust in Providence | throughout (e.g. 1:7; 3:5,9,11; 16:1-9,33; 21:1; 29:25; 31:30) | New foundational entry. Must be distinguished from, yet explicitly identified with, baseline’s 神 and 主. Catechesis must state: 耶和华 = 神 = the one true God across both Testaments, to prevent readers concluding OT/NT name a different deity. |
| Fear of the LORD | יִרְאַת יְהוָה (yirat YHWH) | 敬畏耶和华 | Critical | NEW | The Fear of the Lord as the Beginning of Wisdom | 1:7; 2:5; 9:10; 14:26-27; 15:33; 19:23; 22:4; 23:17; 24:21; 28:14; 29:25; 31:30 | Central thesis of the book, bookending it (1:7/31:30). Must render identically at every occurrence. Guard against collapse into folk-religious placation-fear of capricious spirits/ancestors; this is reverent, trust-producing awe within relationship, per the baseline’s existing caution against 惧怕/迷信 framings. |
| Wisdom | חָכְמָה (chokmah) | 智慧 | Critical | NEW | Wisdom Personified; Fear of the Lord as Beginning of Wisdom | 1:2,7,20; 2:6; 3:13-19; 4:5-9; 7:4; 8:1-36; 9:1-6; 10:23; 24:3,14; 31:26 | Distinguish from Confucian 智 (cultivated moral virtue), Buddhist 智慧/prajñā (meditative liberating insight), and any independent female-deity reading of chs. 8-9. Begins in relationship with a personal God, not self-cultivation. |
| Wisdom personified (as woman) | חָכְמָה (1st-person speaker) | 智慧 (personified) | Critical | NEW | Wisdom Personified | 1:20-33; 8:1-36; 9:1-6 | Teach as literary personification of a divine attribute/activity pointing typologically to Christ (1 Cor 1:24; Col 1:15-17); explicitly not an independent semi-divine hypostasis. Guard against Gnostic Sophia, Buddhist Prajñāpāramitā, and Guānyīn-adjacent syncretism. Every occurrence requires theologian review. |
| Woman Folly | אִשֶּׁת/אִשָּׁה כְּסִילוּת (ishah kesilut) | 愚昧的妇人 | High | NEW | Wisdom Personified (contrast); Contrast of the Wise and the Fool | 9:13-18 | Structural opposite of Wisdom personified; the two competing invitations frame the book’s two-ways theology. |
| Righteousness / the righteous | צֶדֶק/צְדָקָה, צַדִּיק (tsedeq/tsedaqah, tsaddiq) | 义 / 义人 | Critical | BASELINE (root) / NEW (人 compound) | Practical Righteousness in Daily Life | 2:9; 3:33; 10:2-32; 11; 12; 13; 21; 28; 29 | Reuses baseline 义 exactly; inherits baseline’s Confucian-virtue caution. Contextual note: in Proverbs, 义人 names observable righteous conduct/character in daily life, distinct from (but consonant with) Romans’ forensic justification sense. Clarify both senses without conflating them. |
| Wicked / wickedness | רָשָׁע, רֶשַׁע (rasha, resha) | 恶人 | Medium | NEW | Contrast of the Wise and the Fool; Practical Righteousness | 2; 10-15; 21; 24; 28; 29 | Standard moral-character contrast term; low collision risk beyond ensuring active moral culpability (not “bad luck”), consistent with baseline’s 罪/sin caution against karmic-retribution readings. |
2. Wisdom-Instruction and Knowledge Terms
| Term (EN) | Hebrew (translit.) | Mandarin | Risk | Status | Doctrine | Chapters | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teaching/instruction (sapiential torah) | תּוֹרָה (torah, non-Sinai sense) | 法则 | High | NEW | Practical Righteousness; Fear of the Lord | 1:8; 3:1; 4:2; 6:20; 7:2; 13:14; 28:4,7,9; 29:18; 31:26 | Must NOT render as baseline’s 律法 (reserved for Mosaic covenant Law/νόμος). Every תּוֹרָה occurrence in Proverbs must be individually checked for sapiential vs. covenantal sense. |
| Instruction/discipline (general) | מוּסָר (musar) | 训诲 | High | NEW | Fear of the Lord; Practical Righteousness | 1:2,7; 4:1,13; 8:10; 12:1; 13:1; 15:5,32; 23:23 | Distinguish from 律法 and from 管教 (see below); this is the instructional/pedagogical sense. |
| Discipline/chastening (corrective) | מוּסָר (musar, corrective sense) | 管教 | High | NEW | Speech and Self-Control; Practical Righteousness | 3:11; 13:24; 19:18; 22:15; 23:13-14; 29:15,17 | Cultural sensitivity: resonates with Confucian strict-parenting norms; must be taught as flowing from prior, settled love (3:12), not honor-preservation or duty-discharge (cf. baseline’s 孝顺 caution under Obedience of Faith). |
| Rebuke/reproof | תּוֹכַחַת (tokachat) | 责备 | Medium | NEW | Speech and Self-Control | 3:11; 27:5; 29:1,15 | Milder register than 管教; verbal correction motivated by love, not rejection. |
| Rod (of correction) | שֵׁבֶט (shevet) | 杖 | Medium | NEW | Speech and Self-Control | 13:24; 22:15; 23:13-14; 29:15 | Paired with 管教; concrete instrument, figurative for corrective discipline generally. |
| Knowledge | דַּעַת (da’at) | 知识 | Medium | NEW | Fear of the Lord as Beginning of Wisdom | 1:4,7; 2:6; 8:10; 24:5 | Lower collision risk than 智慧/聪明; standard cognitive-content term. |
| Understanding/discernment | תְּבוּנָה / בִּינָה (tebunah / binah) | 聪明 | High | NEW | Fear of the Lord; Wisdom Personified | 2:2; 3:5,13; 4:5,7; 10:13; 24:3 | 聪明 in everyday Mandarin connotes mere cleverness/worldly cunning; must be taught as God-oriented moral-practical discernment, not IQ. |
| Discretion/prudent planning | מְזִמָּה (mezimmah) | 谋略 | Medium | NEW | Practical Righteousness | 1:4; 2:11; 3:21; 5:2; 8:12 | Positive sense here; same root can carry a negative “scheme” sense elsewhere — context-dependent. |
| Integrity/uprightness | תֹּם / יָשָׁר (tom / yashar) | 完全 / 正直 | Medium | NEW | Practical Righteousness | 2:7,21; 10:9; 11:3,5,20; 13:6; 20:7; 28:6,18 | Moral wholeness/straightforwardness of conduct. |
3. Fool/Wise Contrast Terms
| Term (EN) | Hebrew (translit.) | Mandarin | Risk | Status | Doctrine | Chapters | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wise (person) | חָכָם (chakam) | 智慧人 | Medium | NEW | Contrast of the Wise and the Fool | 1:5; 3:7; 9:8-9; 10:1,8; 14:1,16; 15:20; 29:8-9 | Reuses 智慧 root; low collision beyond general wisdom-term cautions above. |
| Simple one | פֶּתִי (peti) | 愚蒙人 | High | NEW | Contrast of the Wise and the Fool | 1:4,22,32; 7:7; 8:5; 9:4,16; 14:15 | The naive/salvageable category — the primary audience wisdom seeks to instruct. |
| Fool (dull, entrenched) | כְּסִיל (kesil) | 愚昧人 | High | NEW | Contrast of the Wise and the Fool | 1:22,32; 10:1,18,23; 12:15,23; 13:19; 26:11 | Most frequent fool-term; a settled moral disposition, not an IQ descriptor. |
| Fool (morally silly) | אֱוִיל (evil) | 愚妄人 | High | NEW | Contrast of the Wise and the Fool | 1:7; 10:8,14; 12:15; 27:3 | Near-synonym of kesil; both must be kept distinct from mere intellectual deficiency in Mandarin. |
| Scoffer/mocker | לֵץ (letz) | 亵慢人 | High | NEW | Contrast of the Wise and the Fool | 1:22; 9:7-8; 13:1; 14:6; 15:12; 19:25; 21:24; 22:10; 24:9; 29:8 | Most hardened category; resists correction itself, beyond even the kesil. |
4. Relational/Covenantal Terms
| Term (EN) | Hebrew (translit.) | Mandarin | Risk | Status | Doctrine | Chapters | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steadfast love/covenant loyalty | חֶסֶד (chesed) | 慈爱 | High | NEW | Practical Righteousness; Trust in the Lord’s Providence | 3:3; 11:17; 14:22; 16:6; 19:22; 20:6,28; 21:21; 31:26 | MUST NOT be conflated with or substituted for baseline’s 恩典 (charis, saving grace). Chesed = persistent covenant loyalty; distinct theological register from unmerited forensic grace, though both reflect divine kindness. |
| Faithfulness/truth | אֱמֶת (emet) | 诚实 | Medium | NEW | Practical Righteousness | 3:3; 12:19; 14:22; 16:6; 20:28 | Retain covenantal-reliability sense, not merely private honesty. |
| Favor (relational/social) | חֵן (chen) | 恩宠 | High | NEW | Practical Righteousness | 3:4,34; 13:15; 22:1; 28:23; 31:30 | MUST NOT be conflated with baseline’s 恩典. Note the LXX/NT bridge: Prov 3:34’s chen is rendered χάρις in James 4:6/1 Peter 5:5 — flag for cross-curriculum consistency review, but retain 恩宠 for the OT-context occurrence itself. |
| Trust/reliance | בָּטַח (batach) | 倚靠 / 倚赖 | High | NEW | Trust in the Lord’s Providence | 3:5; 16:20; 28:25; 29:25; 31:11 | Parallel to baseline’s Faith (信心) entry: the object of trust (耶和华, specifically) must always be recoverable from context. |
| Heart | לֵב (lev) | 心 | Medium | NEW | Practical Righteousness; Speech and Self-Control | 3:1,3,5; 4:23; 14:30; 15:13-15; 16:1,9,23; 23:7,15; 28:26 | Broad Chinese semantic range (心/心思/心志) maps well onto Hebrew lev’s heart-mind-will unity; comparatively low collision risk. |
| Way/path (conduct) | דֶּרֶך (derek) | 道路 | Medium | NEW | Practical Righteousness | 2:8,20; 3:6; 4:11,14,18-19; 10:29; 12:15,28; 16:9,25; 21:2,8 | Use the two-character compound 道路, not a bare 道, to avoid Daoist “the Way” (impersonal cosmic principle) resonance — consistent with the baseline’s existing caution on 道成肉身. |
| Friend | רֵעַ (rea) | 朋友 | Low | NEW | Practical Righteousness | 17:17; 18:24; 27:6,9-10,17 | General-vocabulary term; extends Practical Righteousness into peer accountability and community life. |
5. Speech and Self-Control Terms
| Term (EN) | Hebrew (translit.) | Mandarin | Risk | Status | Doctrine | Chapters | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tongue/speech | לָשׁוֹן (lashon) | 舌头 | Medium | NEW | Speech and Self-Control | 10:19-21,31; 12:18-19; 15:1-2,4,23,28; 16:24,27-28; 17:20,27-28; 18:6-8,13,21; 21:23; 25:11,15,23; 26:20-28 | Metonym for speech generally; “power of life and death” (18:21) — central verse for this doctrine. |
| Self-control/restraint of spirit | אֵין מַעְצָר לְרוּחוֹ idiom (ma’tsar) | 节制 | Medium | NEW | Speech and Self-Control | 16:32; 25:28; 29:11 | Must not be taught as Buddhist/Daoist ascetic technique for self-perfection; this is relationally-motivated, wisdom-shaped self-governance flowing from fearing the LORD. |
| Talebearer/gossip | (general vocabulary) | 说闲话的人 | Low | NEW | Speech and Self-Control | 26:20-22 | Extension of the tongue doctrine into interpersonal community harm. |
6. Diligence and Sloth Terms
| Term (EN) | Hebrew (translit.) | Mandarin | Risk | Status | Doctrine | Chapters | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sluggard | עָצֵל (atzel) | 懒惰人 | Low–Medium | NEW | Diligence versus Sloth | 6:6-11; 10:26; 12:24,27; 13:4; 15:19; 19:15,24; 20:4,13; 21:5,25; 22:29; 24:30-34; 26:13-16 | Low collision risk; straightforward moral-character contrast, though catechesis should avoid moralistic works-righteousness overreach (sloth condemned, but diligence is not itself salvific merit). |
| Diligent hand / slack hand | יַד־חָרוּצִים / יָד רְמִיָּה | 殷勤的手 / 懒惰的手 | Low | NEW | Diligence versus Sloth | 10:4; 12:24; 13:4 | Idiomatic hand-imagery contrast; foundational text for the doctrine. |
| Ant (wisdom exemplar) | נְמָלָה (nemalah) | 蚂蚁 | Low | NEW | Diligence versus Sloth | 6:6-8; 30:24-25 | Illustrative creature-wisdom saying; no doctrinal risk. |
7. Providence Terms
| Term (EN) | Hebrew (translit.) | Mandarin | Risk | Status | Doctrine | Chapters | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commit your works to the LORD | idiom (gol el-YHWH) | 将你所做的交托耶和华 | High | NEW | Trust in the Lord’s Providence | 16:3 | Core providence text; inherits baseline’s caution against 天意-style fatalism. |
| The king’s heart in the LORD’s hand | idiom | 王的心在耶和华手中 | High | NEW | Trust in the Lord’s Providence | 21:1 | Extends personal providence to the political/national sphere. |
| The LORD weighs the spirit | idiom (token ruchot) | 耶和华衡量人心 | Medium | NEW | Trust in the Lord’s Providence | 16:2; 21:2 | Inward-motive dimension of providence, beyond outward events. |
| Fear of man vs. trust in the LORD | idiom | 惧怕人 / 倚靠耶和华 | Medium | NEW | Trust in the Lord’s Providence | 29:25 | Reuses 倚靠耶和华 (3:5) in direct antithetical structure; strong proof-text pairing for this doctrine. |
8. Imagery and Capstone Terms
| Term (EN) | Hebrew (translit.) | Mandarin | Risk | Status | Doctrine | Chapters | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tree of life | עֵץ חַיִּים (etz chayyim) | 生命树 | High | NEW | Wisdom Personified; Fear of the Lord | 3:18; 11:30; 13:12; 15:4 | Eden imagery reapplied to wisdom; avoid Daoist-immortality-tree or Bodhi-tree resonance. |
| Fountain/spring of life | מְקוֹר חַיִּים (mekor chayyim) | 生命的泉源 | Medium | NEW | Fear of the Lord | 14:27; 16:22 | Parallels tree-of-life imagery; reinforces 1:7/9:10 thesis. |
| Strange/forbidden woman | אִשָּׁה זָרָה / נָכְרִיָּה | 淫妇 / 外女 | Medium | NEW | Practical Righteousness (negative exemplar) | 2:16; 5:3,20; 6:24; 7:5; 22:14; 23:27 | Sexual-immorality warning motif recurring across chs. 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 22, 23; some scholarship also reads a covenant-unfaithfulness/idolatry subtext. |
| Abomination | תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah) | 憎恶的事 | Medium | NEW | Practical Righteousness | 3:32; 6:16-19; 8:7; 11:1,20; 12:22; 15:8-9,26; 16:5; 17:15; 20:10,23; 21:27; 24:9; 28:9; 29:27 | ”Seven things the LORD hates” (6:16-19) is the anchor text. |
| Firstfruits/first portion | רֵאשִׁית (reshit) | 初熟的土产 | Medium | NEW | Practical Righteousness | 3:9 | Ties to covenant offering system; must not read as transactional folk-votive exchange. |
| Honor (the LORD) | כָּבֵד (kabed) | 尊荣 | High | NEW | Fear of the Lord; Practical Righteousness | 3:9 | Shares root with baseline’s 荣耀 (glory); guard against folk-votive-offering framing (cf. baseline’s grace-vs-merit caution). |
| Woman of noble character | אֵשֶׁת־חַיִל (eshet chayil) | 才德的妇人 | Medium | NEW | Practical Righteousness; capstone of all doctrines | 31:10-31 | Book’s capstone embodiment; converges nearly every doctrine and term in the curriculum. |
| Agur’s confession of ignorance | לֹא־יָדַעְתִּי (lo yadati) | 我没有学到智慧 | Medium | NEW | Fear of the Lord (epistemic humility) | 30:1-4 | Corrective against reading Proverbs as a self-sufficient human wisdom-acquisition manual. |
| Sinners | חַטָּאִים (chatta’im) | 罪人 | Medium | BASELINE (root) | Contrast of the Wise and the Fool | 1:10 | Reuses baseline 罪 root exactly. |
| Proverb (book genre) | מָשָׁל (mashal) | 箴言 | Low | NEW | — (book title) | 1:1 | Established Chinese Bible title for the book. |
| Length of days / life | אֹרֶך יָמִים / חַיִּים | 长久的日子 / 生命 | Medium | NEW | Fear of the Lord; Trust in Providence | 3:2; 3:16; 4:10; 9:11 | Guard against folk longevity-charm resonance (长寿符, birthday-peach symbolism). |
| Peace | שָׁלוֹם (shalom) | 平安 | Medium | BASELINE — REUSE EXACTLY | Trust in the Lord’s Providence | 3:2,17 | Reuse baseline 平安 exactly; same amulet-culture caution applies. |
| Law (Mosaic, where actually referenced) | — | 律法 | Critical | BASELINE — REUSE EXACTLY, USE SPARINGLY | — | (cross-reference only; Proverbs itself rarely invokes Sinai Law directly) | Reserve strictly for genuine Mosaic-covenant references; never for sapiential תּוֹרָה (see 法则 above). |
Chapter Coverage Index
All 31 chapters of Proverbs are represented above, either as a source of new terms or explicitly noted in 07_semantic_analysis.md as reusing prior chapters’ vocabulary: Ch. 1 (fool categories, 敬畏耶和华 thesis), Ch. 2 (discretion, integrity, strange woman), Ch. 3 (core passage + tree of life, chen/NT bridge), Ch. 4 (guard your heart), Ch. 5 (reuse only), Ch. 6 (sluggard, abomination), Ch. 7 (reuse only), Ch. 8 (Wisdom personified — Critical), Ch. 9 (Woman Folly), Ch. 10 (tongue, righteous/wicked, diligent/slack hand), Ch. 11 (reuse + just balance), Ch. 12 (reuse only), Ch. 13 (rod of discipline), Ch. 14 (fountain of life), Ch. 15 (reuse only), Ch. 16 (providence: commit your works, weighs the spirit), Ch. 17 (friend), Ch. 18 (tongue’s power of life/death, strong tower), Ch. 19 (reuse only), Ch. 20 (reuse only), Ch. 21 (king’s heart in the LORD’s hand), Ch. 22 (good name — reuse-adjacent), Ch. 23 (self-control flagged provisionally), Ch. 24 (reuse only), Ch. 25 (self-control formalized, coals of fire/Romans 12:20 bridge), Ch. 26 (reuse + talebearer), Ch. 27 (reuse only), Ch. 28 (reuse only), Ch. 29 (reuse + fear of man/trust contrast), Ch. 30 (Agur’s epistemic humility), Ch. 31 (woman of noble character; closing thesis restatement).
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: 神
Transliteration: Shén
Doctrine: Deity of God / The Fear of the Lord as the Beginning of Wisdom
Rejected alternatives: 上帝, 天, 老天爷
Original: אֱלֹהִים
Category: God
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, REUSED EXACTLY] This Language Package standardizes on 神 (the CUV ‘Shen edition’ reading) rather than 上帝 (Shàngdì), per the baseline’s 19th-century Term Question resolution. NEVER use 天 (tiān, impersonal Heaven) or 老天爷. PROVERBS-SPECIFIC ADDITION: Proverbs uses the covenant name 耶和华 far more densely than 神 (Elohim). Catechesis must state explicitly that 耶和华 = 神 = the one true God across both Testaments, since first-time OT readers otherwise risk concluding these are two different beings — a documented pastoral confusion distinct from the Term Question itself.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: 义
Transliteration: yì
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Rejected alternatives: 道德, 善行, 修身, 君子之德
Original: צֶדֶק / צְדָקָה / צַדִּיק
Category: Character
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, REUSED EXACTLY] 义 is one of the Confucian Five Constant Virtues (仁义礼智信) — a social-ethical duty cultivated by moral effort. PROVERBS-SPECIFIC ADDITION: in Proverbs, 义/义人 (10-15; 21; 28-29) names observable righteous conduct and character in daily life, a different emphasis from Romans’ forensic declared-righteous status — and because Proverbs’ genre (practical ethical instruction) superficially resembles a Confucian moral-cultivation manual, the collision risk is HEAVIER here than in Romans. Every doctrinal-context occurrence requires a note distinguishing ‘righteous conduct’ (Proverbs) from ‘righteous status’ (Romans), while affirming both are God-given via fearing the LORD (1:7; 9:10) and trusting him (3:5-6), never self-generated through 修身.
Law
Approved rendering: 律法
Transliteration: lǜfǎ
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Rejected alternatives: 礼, 道德规范, 法律, 法则
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, REUSED EXACTLY] Reserved exclusively for the Mosaic covenant Law (νόμος); never equate with Confucian 礼. PROVERBS-SPECIFIC ADDITION: use STRICTLY SPARINGLY in this curriculum — Proverbs overwhelmingly uses תּוֹרָה (torah) in a sapiential, non-Sinai sense (see torah_sapiential entry, rendered 法则), and 律法 must never be substituted there. Reserve 律法 only for genuine Mosaic-covenant cross-references.
Grace
Approved rendering: 恩典
Transliteration: ēndiǎn
Doctrine: Covenant Loyalty and Faithfulness (fencing reference)
Rejected alternatives: 功德, 造化, 福气, 阴德, 慈爱, 恩宠
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, REUSED EXACTLY] NEVER use 功德 or 阴德. PROVERBS-SPECIFIC ADDITION: 恩典 must never be substituted for, or confused with, this book’s 慈爱 (chesed, covenant loyalty) or 恩宠 (chen, relational/social favor). Although Proverbs 3:34’s chen is quoted as χάρις in James 4:6/1 Peter 5:5, this package forbids retroactively harmonizing 3:34 to 恩典; retain 恩宠 in the OT context. This fencing rule protects the baseline’s grace-vs-merit (功德) distinction from being blurred by an unrelated OT idiom for social favor.
Lord
Approved rendering: 主
Transliteration: zhǔ
Doctrine: Trust in the Lord’s Providence (fencing reference)
Rejected alternatives: 主人, 老爷, 耶和华 (as a substitute in NT contexts)
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, REUSED EXACTLY] Established term for κύριος; exclusive divine Lordship, not a feudal honorific. PROVERBS-SPECIFIC ADDITION: 主 (NT/Christological) and 耶和华 (OT covenant name) both refer to the one true God alongside 神; this three-way terminological identity (耶和华 = 神 = 主, in their respective Testament contexts) must be taught explicitly to prevent first-time OT readers moving between curricula from inferring three deities.
Yhwh
Approved rendering: 耶和华
Transliteration: Yēhéhuá
Doctrine: The Fear of the Lord as the Beginning of Wisdom
Rejected alternatives: 上帝, 天, 老天爷, 神 (as a silent substitute that erases the covenant-name distinction)
Original: יְהוָה
Category: God
NEW FOUNDATIONAL TERM. CUV-established transliteration for the covenant name, used far more densely in Proverbs (throughout; especially 3:5-12; 16:1-9,33; 21:1; 29:25; 31:30) than the generic 神 (Elohim). CRITICAL: must be explicitly identified with 神 and 主 as the same one triune God across both Testaments — a documented, common confusion among first-time Chinese OT readers, distinct from the baseline’s Shén/Shàngdì Term Question. Never abbreviate or paraphrase as 天 or 老天爷.
Fear Of The Lord
Approved rendering: 敬畏耶和华
Transliteration: jìngwèi Yēhéhuá
Doctrine: The Fear of the Lord as the Beginning of Wisdom
Rejected alternatives: 怕耶和华, 惧怕耶和华, 迷信耶和华
Original: יִרְאַת יְהוָה
Category: Wisdom
The book’s programmatic thesis, bookending it (1:7; 31:30); occurs at 1:7; 2:5; 9:10; 14:26-27; 15:33; 19:23; 22:4; 23:17; 24:21; 28:14; 29:25; 31:30 and must render IDENTICALLY at every occurrence. CRITICAL: Chinese folk religion frames fear of the divine as placation of capricious ancestral spirits, hungry ghosts, or territorial gods to avert misfortune/报应 through ritual offering — a transactional, avoidance-based fear. 敬畏耶和华 must be taught as the positive, worshipful BEGINNING of a trust-filled covenant relationship with a personal God who desires the disciple’s good (evidenced by 3:1-12’s uniformly positive fruits), never appeasement of an unpredictable power. Never use 怕 or 惧怕 alone; never gloss as 迷信 (‘superstition’).
Wisdom
Approved rendering: 智慧
Transliteration: zhìhuì
Doctrine: The Fear of the Lord as the Beginning of Wisdom
Rejected alternatives: 聪明 (as a substitute), 智 (bare Confucian virtue term)
Original: חָכְמָה
Category: Wisdom
CRITICAL — triple semantic occupancy, the single highest-risk term in the curriculum. (1) Confucian 智 (zhì), one of the Five Constant Virtues, is cultivated moral-intellectual achievement through study/self-discipline; biblical wisdom BEGINS in reverent relationship with a personal God (1:7; 9:10), not autonomous self-cultivation. (2) The identical compound 智慧 is the standard Chinese Buddhist rendering of prajñā (般若智慧), meditative insight toward liberation from samsara. (3) In secular Mandarin it denotes ordinary cleverness. Every doctrinal occurrence in chs. 1-9 must anchor 智慧 back to its relational origin in fearing the LORD, explicitly rejecting self-cultivation and meditative-attainment readings.
Wisdom Personified
Approved rendering: 智慧
Transliteration: zhìhuì
Doctrine: Wisdom Personified
Rejected alternatives: a coined proper-name-style rendering for personified Wisdom, 观音式称呼, 般若母
Original: חָכְמָה (in first-person personified speech)
Category: Wisdom Personified
CRITICAL. Wisdom speaking in the first person, present at creation (1:20-33; 8:1-36; 9:1-6). Must be taught strictly as literary personification of a divine attribute/activity, typologically anticipating Christ (1 Cor 1:24; Col 1:15-17) — NEVER as an independent semi-divine female hypostasis. Three distinct Chinese syncretistic pulls: (a) Gnostic-style Sophia mythology; (b) Mahāyāna Buddhist Prajñāpāramitā (‘Perfection of Wisdom’), venerated as ‘Mother of all Buddhas’; (c) popular conflation with Guānyīn (观音) or other compassionate female-coded folk-devotional figures. Mandarin has no capitalization-equivalent device to mark personification; it must be carried through verbs of speech (智慧呼喊说…) plus a mandatory theologian-reviewed translator note at every occurrence in chs. 1, 8, 9. Never modify with devotional honorifics used for Guānyīn (e.g., 大慈大悲); never present as an object of prayer/petition.
Law Mosaic Sinai
Approved rendering: 律法
Transliteration: lǜfǎ
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Rejected alternatives: 法则
Original: תּוֹרָה (Sinai/covenant sense)
Category: Covenant
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, REUSED EXACTLY as an entry for cross-reference] The Mosaic covenant Law, referenced only cross-referentially in Proverbs, which overwhelmingly uses torah in the sapiential sense (see torah_sapiential). Reserve strictly for genuine Mosaic-covenant references; never for sapiential תּוֹרָה.
High Risk Terms
Sin
Approved rendering: 罪
Transliteration: zuì
Doctrine: Contrast of the Wise and the Fool
Rejected alternatives: 报应, 罪犯式的罪
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, REUSED EXACTLY] 罪 also means criminal guilt and, in folk usage, links to 报应 (karmic retribution). PROVERBS-SPECIFIC ADDITION: retain this caution for 罪人 (1:10-19, enticers to violence/theft) — moral offense against a personal God, not bad luck or karmic consequence.
Woman Folly
Approved rendering: 愚昧的妇人
Transliteration: yúmèi de fùrén
Doctrine: Wisdom Personified
Rejected alternatives: 妖女, 女鬼
Original: אִשֶּׁת/אִשָּׁה כְּסִילוּת
Category: Wisdom Personified
A rival personification of folly (9:13-18), the structural antithesis of Wisdom personified. Must not be rendered with folk ghost-story ‘demon woman’ vocabulary (妖女), which would trivialize the moral-spiritual point into folklore. Preserve the deliberate parallel verbs/structure with 8:1-3 (‘calls out,’ ‘sits at the door,’ ‘invites’) so the two-invitations structure is visible in Mandarin syntax.
Torah Sapiential
Approved rendering: 法则
Transliteration: fǎzé
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Rejected alternatives: 律法
Original: תּוֹרָה
Category: Wisdom
MUST NOT render as 律法, reserved exclusively for the Mosaic covenant Law. Using 律法 here would dress ordinary sapiential father/sage instruction (1:8; 3:1; 4:2; 6:20; 7:2; 13:14; 28:4,7,9; 29:18; 31:26) in the authority of the Sinai covenant code — the reverse of the baseline’s existing caution. Every occurrence of תּוֹרָה in Proverbs must be individually checked for sapiential vs. covenantal sense.
Musar Instruction
Approved rendering: 训诲
Transliteration: xùnhuì
Doctrine: The Fear of the Lord as the Beginning of Wisdom
Rejected alternatives: 律法, 管教 (in the instructional sense)
Original: מוּסָר
Category: Wisdom
Formal moral/pedagogical instruction (1:2,7; 4:1,13; 8:10; 12:1; 13:1; 15:5,32; 23:23). Keep distinct from both 律法 (Mosaic Law) and 管教 (corrective discipline, the same Hebrew root musar’s other sense) so the instructional and corrective registers are not collapsed together.
Musar Discipline
Approved rendering: 管教
Transliteration: guǎnjiào
Doctrine: Divine Discipline as an Expression of Love
Rejected alternatives: 训诲 (in the corrective sense), 惩罚
Original: מוּסָר
Category: Discipline
The LORD’s/a parent’s corrective discipline flowing from settled, prior love (3:11-12; 13:24; 19:18; 22:15; 23:13-14; 29:15,17). 管教 resonates strongly with Confucian filial-piety and strict 严父 (‘strict father’) child-rearing norms — helpful for intuitive comprehension but risky: it may import a family-honor/obedience-as-duty framing (cf. baseline’s 孝顺 caution under Obedience of Faith) rather than the text’s actual ground (3:12: discipline as proof of personal, relational love, not honor-preservation). Every doctrinal-context occurrence must be paired with, or immediately follow, 3:12’s grounding clause.
Understanding
Approved rendering: 聪明
Transliteration: cōngmíng
Doctrine: Trust in the Lord’s Providence
Rejected alternatives: 智商, 精明
Original: תְּבוּנָה / בִּינָה
Category: Wisdom
聪明 in everyday spoken Mandarin denotes simple cleverness or worldly cunning (a street-smart trickster can be called 聪明). Biblical binah/tebunah (2:2; 3:5,13; 4:5,7; 10:13; 24:3) is God-oriented practical discernment for righteous living, not mere IQ. CRITICAL context at 3:5: self-reliant 聪明 is explicitly warned against as a rival to trust in 耶和华 — this rhetorical trap must survive translation.
Simple One
Approved rendering: 愚蒙人
Transliteration: yúméng rén
Doctrine: Contrast of the Wise and the Fool
Rejected alternatives: 笨蛋, 傻子
Original: פֶּתִי
Category: Character Contrast
Part of a coined four-term gradation system (peti → kesil/evil → letz) with NO pre-existing four-way Mandarin distinction. 愚蒙人 = the naive, inexperienced, still-salvageable category (1:4,22,32; 7:7; 8:5; 9:4,16; 14:15) — wisdom’s primary target audience. Must never be flattened into the same register as 愚昧人/愚妄人/亵慢人; teach the gradation as a deliberately constructed system, not assumed vocabulary.
Fool Kesil
Approved rendering: 愚昧人
Transliteration: yúmèi rén
Doctrine: Contrast of the Wise and the Fool
Rejected alternatives: 笨蛋, 低智商的人
Original: כְּסִיל
Category: Character Contrast
The most frequent fool-term (1:22,32; 10:1,18,23; 12:15,23; 13:19; 26:11): a settled disposition of rejecting wisdom, a moral-spiritual category — NOT an intellectual-deficiency category. A kesil can be clever or successful by worldly measures (cf. 1 Cor 1:20’s parallel warning). Never substitute colloquial 笨/傻/蠢.
Fool Evil
Approved rendering: 愚妄人
Transliteration: yúwàng rén
Doctrine: Contrast of the Wise and the Fool
Rejected alternatives: 笨蛋
Original: אֱוִיל
Category: Character Contrast
Near-synonym of kesil describing morally silly, self-destructive folly (1:7; 10:8,14; 12:15; 27:3). Must be kept textually distinct from fool_kesil even though close in meaning, to preserve the book’s graded fool-vocabulary system.
Scoffer
Approved rendering: 亵慢人
Transliteration: xièmàn rén
Doctrine: Contrast of the Wise and the Fool
Rejected alternatives: 嘲笑者 (too weak/generic)
Original: לֵץ
Category: Character Contrast
The most hardened fool-category (1:22; 9:7-8; 13:1; 14:6; 15:12; 19:25; 21:24; 22:10; 24:9; 29:8): one who mocks correction itself, beyond even the entrenched kesil. If flattened into ordinary ‘foolishness,’ the escalating moral-spiritual stakes of the doctrine are lost. This is the terminus of the peti→kesil/evil→letz gradation.
Chesed
Approved rendering: 慈爱
Transliteration: cí’ài
Doctrine: Covenant Loyalty and Faithfulness
Rejected alternatives: 恩典, 功德, 阴德
Original: חֶסֶד
Category: Relational Ethics
CRITICAL DISTINCTION FROM BASELINE: 慈爱 must never be confused with or substituted for the baseline’s fixed 恩典 (charis, unmerited saving grace). Chesed is persistent covenant loyalty kept over time (3:3; 11:17; 14:22; 16:6; 19:22; 20:6,28; 21:21; 31:26) — a different theological register from grace’s ‘favor apart from merit-accounting,’ even though both reflect divine kindness. Conflating the two would blur the baseline’s grace/merit (功德) distinction.
Favor Chen
Approved rendering: 恩宠
Transliteration: ēnchǒng
Doctrine: Covenant Loyalty and Faithfulness
Rejected alternatives: 恩典
Original: חֵן
Category: Relational Ethics
Relational/social favor or goodwill (3:4,34; 13:15; 22:1; 28:23; 31:30). MUST NOT be rendered 恩典. Note the LXX/NT bridge: Prov 3:34’s chen is quoted as χάρις in James 4:6/1 Peter 5:5 — this package FORBIDS retroactively harmonizing 3:34 to 恩典 for cross-curriculum consistency; retain 恩宠 in this OT context. At 31:30, the Mandarin must preserve the rhetorical devaluation (‘charm/恩宠 is deceitful’) relative to fear of the LORD.
Trust Batach
Approved rendering: 倚靠 / 倚赖
Transliteration: yīkào / yīlài
Doctrine: Trust in the Lord’s Providence
Rejected alternatives: 依赖 (generic dependence), 宿命式的顺从
Original: בָּטַח
Category: Providence
Whole-hearted reliance placed specifically in YHWH, not in one’s own understanding (3:5; 16:20; 28:25; 29:25; 31:11). Parallels the baseline’s Faith (信心) entry: the object of trust must always be recoverable from context as 耶和华/神. Distinguish from generic 依赖 (dependence on anything/anyone) or fatalistic resignation.
Self Control
Approved rendering: 节制
Transliteration: jiézhì
Doctrine: Speech and Self-Control
Rejected alternatives: 克己, 苦行, 修炼
Original: אֵין מַעְצָר לְרוּחוֹ (idiom, from 25:28); cf. 16:32; 29:11
Category: Speech
Mastery over one’s own spirit/impulses (16:32; 25:28; 29:11). In popular Chinese religious contexts, self-restraint/asceticism (克己, 苦行, 节制欲望) is strongly associated with Buddhist monastic discipline and Daoist ascetic technique for spiritual attainment or liberation — echoing the baseline’s Critical caution against 修炼 under Sanctification. Must be taught as wisdom-shaped, relationally-motivated self-governance flowing from fearing the LORD, never a meritorious ascetic technique for self-perfection or enlightenment. Require a clarifying note at 16:32, 25:28, and 29:11.
Commit Works
Approved rendering: 将你所做的交托耶和华
Transliteration: jiāng nǐ suǒ zuò de jiāotuō Yēhéhuá
Doctrine: Trust in the Lord’s Providence
Rejected alternatives: 随天意, 顺其自然
Original: גֹּל אֶל־יְהוָה מַעֲשֶׂיךָ
Category: Providence
Idiom of transferring one’s plans/burdens to the LORD’s superintendence (16:3), a key providence text. Inherits the baseline’s caution against 天意-style impersonal fatalism: must be taught as active relational trust in a personal God’s purposive care, not passive resignation to an impersonal cosmic will. No Mandarin abstract noun for ‘providence’ exists; render as this fixed idiom, not a literal calque.
Kings Heart
Approved rendering: 王的心在耶和华手中
Transliteration: wáng de xīn zài Yēhéhuá shǒuzhōng
Doctrine: Trust in the Lord’s Providence
Rejected alternatives: 天命所归, 君权天授
Original: לֵב־מֶלֶךְ בְּיַד־יְהוָה
Category: Providence
Even the most powerful human will is subject to God’s providential direction (21:1), extending personal providence to the political sphere. Risk of being misread through the Mandate of Heaven (天命) framework, where a ruler’s legitimacy rests on an impersonal, revocable cosmic endorsement. Proverbs 21:1 depicts YHWH’s personal, ongoing governance of a specific ruler’s heart, not an impersonal mandate bestowed on or withdrawn from a dynasty.
Tree Of Life
Approved rendering: 生命树
Transliteration: shēngmìng shù
Doctrine: Wisdom as the Source of Life and Blessing
Rejected alternatives: 蟠桃树式意象, 菩提树式意象
Original: עֵץ חַיִּים
Category: Imagery
Eden imagery (Genesis 2-3) reapplied to wisdom (3:18; 11:30; 13:12; 15:4). Must avoid any rendering echoing Daoist immortality-tree/peach-of-longevity folklore (蟠桃, the Queen Mother of the West’s peaches of immortality) or Buddhist Bodhi-tree enlightenment imagery. 生命树, a direct transparent compound, is preferred over any more poetic alternative that might import those associations.
Honor The Lord
Approved rendering: 尊荣
Transliteration: zūnróng
Doctrine: Honoring God with Material Wealth
Rejected alternatives: 投资, 还愿, 许愿
Original: כָּבֵד
Category: Relational Ethics
To ascribe weight/worth to God through concrete, material honoring from one’s wealth (3:9). Closely parallels Chinese folk-religious votive practice — presenting offerings (供品) to temple deities or ancestors in an implicitly transactional exchange for protection or fortune, the same grace-vs-merit concern the baseline flags for 恩典 vs. 功德. Must be taught as gratitude-driven worship flowing from an already-trusting relationship (3:5), never as payment securing future blessing (3:10). Avoid framing as 投资 (‘investment’) or vocabulary echoing 还愿/许愿 votive-vow practice.
Medium Risk Terms
Peace
Approved rendering: 平安
Transliteration: píng’ān
Doctrine: Wisdom as the Source of Life and Blessing
Rejected alternatives: 安宁, 平安符式的平安
Original: שָׁלוֹם
Category: Providence
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, REUSED EXACTLY] 平安 is also the everyday greeting/blessing word seen on protective amulets (平安符). PROVERBS-SPECIFIC ADDITION: at 3:2,17 this is relational peace flowing from wisdom and trust in YHWH, not a wish for talisman-secured safety.
Wicked
Approved rendering: 恶人
Transliteration: èrén
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Rejected alternatives: 倒霉的人, 报应缠身的人
Original: רָשָׁע / רֶשַׁע
Category: Character
Standard moral-character contrast to 义人 throughout chs. 10-15, 21, 28-29. Ensure active moral culpability is retained, not a ‘bad luck’/karmic-retribution (报应) reading.
Rebuke
Approved rendering: 责备
Transliteration: zébèi
Doctrine: Divine Discipline as an Expression of Love
Rejected alternatives: 批评, 定罪
Original: תּוֹכַחַת
Category: Discipline
Milder verbal correction than 管教 (3:11; 27:5; 29:1,15); loving, relationship-preserving, not condemnation. Distinguish from 罪 (sin’s guilt) and from mere fault-finding criticism.
Rod Of Discipline
Approved rendering: 杖
Transliteration: zhàng
Doctrine: Divine Discipline as an Expression of Love
Original: שֵׁבֶט
Category: Discipline
Concrete instrument standing figuratively for corrective discipline generally (13:24; 22:15; 23:13-14; 29:15); pair with 管教.
Knowledge
Approved rendering: 知识
Transliteration: zhīshì
Doctrine: The Fear of the Lord as the Beginning of Wisdom
Original: דַּעַת
Category: Wisdom
Cognitive/relational knowledge (1:4,7; 2:6; 8:10; 24:5). Lower collision risk than 智慧/聪明; preserve its pairing with 敬畏耶和华 (1:7) to keep knowledge relationally rooted.
Discretion
Approved rendering: 谋略
Transliteration: móulüè
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Rejected alternatives: 阴谋
Original: מְזִמָּה
Category: Wisdom
Prudent forethought/planning, wisdom’s protective foresight in its positive uses (1:4; 2:11; 3:21; 5:2; 8:12). The same Hebrew root can carry a negative ‘scheme’ sense elsewhere — context-dependent; do not confuse with cunning manipulation.
Integrity
Approved rendering: 完全 / 正直
Transliteration: wánquán / zhèngzhí
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Original: תֹּם / יָשָׁר
Category: Character
Moral wholeness and straightforwardness of conduct (2:7,21; 10:9; 11:3,5,20; 13:6; 20:7; 28:6,18). Retain a relational, God-oriented sense; do not let it shrink to a secular personal-ethics virtue detached from fear of the LORD.
Wise Person
Approved rendering: 智慧人
Transliteration: zhìhuìrén
Doctrine: Contrast of the Wise and the Fool
Original: חָכָם
Category: Character Contrast
One who possesses and lives out God-oriented wisdom (1:5; 3:7; 9:8-9; 10:1,8; 14:1,16; 15:20; 29:8-9). Reuses the 智慧 root; low additional risk beyond wisdom’s general cautions.
Emet Faithfulness
Approved rendering: 诚实
Transliteration: chéngshí
Doctrine: Covenant Loyalty and Faithfulness
Original: אֱמֶת
Category: Relational Ethics
Reliability/faithfulness/truth, near-synonymous with chesed in covenant contexts (3:3; 12:19; 14:22; 16:6; 20:28). 诚实 in modern colloquial Mandarin primarily means personal honesty; retain the covenantal-reliability sense, not merely a private-personality trait.
Heart Lev
Approved rendering: 心
Transliteration: xīn
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Original: לֵב
Category: Character
The integrated seat of thought, will, and moral decision — not merely emotion (3:1,3,5; 4:23; 14:30; 15:13-15; 16:1,9,23; 23:7,15; 28:26). 心’s broad Chinese semantic field (心/心思/心志) maps unusually well onto Hebrew lev; comparatively low collision risk, though catechesis should clarify the intellectual-volitional breadth for readers expecting only an emotional sense.
Way Derek
Approved rendering: 道路
Transliteration: dàolù
Doctrine: The Two Ways: Wisdom’s Path versus Folly’s Path
Rejected alternatives: 道 (bare single character)
Original: דֶּרֶך
Category: Character
One’s habitual conduct/life-course (2:8,20; 3:6; 4:11,14,18-19; 10:29; 12:15,28; 16:9,25; 21:2,8). Use ONLY the two-character compound 道路, never a bare 道, to avoid resonance with Daoist metaphysical ‘the Way’ (an impersonal cosmic principle aligned with through technique) — consistent with the baseline’s existing vigilance on 道 in 道成肉身. Never abbreviate to bare 道 even in poetic renderings of proverbial couplets.
Tongue
Approved rendering: 舌头
Transliteration: shétou
Doctrine: Speech and Self-Control
Original: לָשׁוֹן
Category: Speech
Metonym for speech generally (10:19-21,31; 12:18-19; 15:1-2,4,23,28; 16:24,27-28; 17:20,27-28; 18:6-8,13,21; 21:23; 25:11,15,23; 26:20-28). Standard transparent compound; primary risk is under-teaching 18:21’s doctrinal weight (‘the tongue has the power of life and death’), the anchor verse for this doctrine.
Weighs Spirit
Approved rendering: 耶和华衡量人心
Transliteration: Yēhéhuá héngliáng rénxīn
Doctrine: Trust in the Lord’s Providence
Original: תֹּכֵן רוּחוֹת
Category: Providence
God’s discernment of inner motive, beyond outward appearance (16:2; 21:2). Ensure this is read as personal moral discernment by a relational God, not an impersonal cosmic balance/scale that could echo karmic-ledger imagery.
Fear Of Man
Approved rendering: 惧怕人
Transliteration: jùpà rén
Doctrine: Trust in the Lord’s Providence
Original: idiom, cf. 29:25
Category: Providence
The snare of fearing human opinion or power, contrasted with safety in trusting the LORD (29:25). Reuses 倚靠耶和华 (3:5) in direct antithetical structure; preserve the parallelism/structure, not merely the vocabulary, so the proof-text pairing survives translation.
Fountain Of Life
Approved rendering: 生命的泉源
Transliteration: shēngmìng de quányuán
Doctrine: Wisdom as the Source of Life and Blessing
Original: מְקוֹר חַיִּים
Category: Imagery
The fear of the LORD (and elsewhere wisdom/righteous speech) as a life-giving spring (14:27; 16:22). Parallels tree-of-life imagery; same folk-longevity/immortality-spring caution applies at lower intensity.
Strange Woman
Approved rendering: 淫妇 / 外女
Transliteration: yínfù / wàinǚ
Doctrine: Warning Against Sexual Immorality
Rejected alternatives: 夷女式称呼
Original: אִשָּׁה זָרָה / נָכְרִיָּה
Category: Sin
An adulteress figure warned against across multiple chapters (2:16; 5:3,20; 6:24; 7:5; 22:14; 23:27), sometimes also read as evoking covenant unfaithfulness. Must name concrete sexual sin clearly, without exoticizing ‘foreign woman’ language in a way that imports the classical Hua-Yi (华夷) insider/outsider hierarchy already flagged under Gentiles/外邦人 in the baseline, and without softening into vague generic ‘temptation.‘
Abomination
Approved rendering: 憎恶的事
Transliteration: zēngwù de shì
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Rejected alternatives: 忌讳
Original: תּוֹעֵבָה
Category: Sin
That which is morally repugnant to God, anchored by the ‘seven things the LORD hates’ (6:16-19; also 3:32; 8:7; 11:1,20; 12:22; 15:8-9,26; 16:5; 17:15; 20:10,23; 21:27; 24:9; 28:9; 29:27). Retain moral repugnance to a personal God, not ritual impurity or folk-superstitious taboo (忌讳).
Firstfruits
Approved rendering: 初熟的土产
Transliteration: chūshú de tǔchǎn
Doctrine: Honoring God with Material Wealth
Rejected alternatives: 供品
Original: רֵאשִׁית
Category: Relational Ethics
The first and best portion of a harvest dedicated to God (3:9), tied to the covenant offering system. Must not be confused with ancestor-veneration food offerings (供品, gòngpǐn) presented at family altars.
Woman Of Noble Character
Approved rendering: 才德的妇人
Transliteration: cáidé de fùrén
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Original: אֵשֶׁת־חַיִל
Category: Character
The book’s capstone embodiment of wisdom’s teaching lived out in daily life (31:10-31), converging nearly every doctrine and term in the curriculum. Ensure 恩宠/charm (31:30) is deliberately devalued relative to fear of the LORD, which alone is called praiseworthy; do not let the Mandarin imply beauty/social favor is the actual ground of praise.
Agur Confession
Approved rendering: 我没有学到智慧
Transliteration: wǒ méiyǒu xuédào zhìhuì
Doctrine: Epistemic Humility Before God
Original: לֹא־יָדַעְתִּי
Category: Wisdom
Agur’s rhetorical confession of radical epistemic humility before God’s incomprehensibility (30:2-4). Corrects any reading of Proverbs as a self-sufficient wisdom-acquisition manual. Ensure genuine humility is conveyed, not rhetorical false modesty, consistent with 3:5’s warning against leaning on one’s own understanding (聪明).
Sinners
Approved rendering: 罪人
Transliteration: zuìrén
Doctrine: Contrast of the Wise and the Fool
Original: חַטָּאִים
Category: Sin
Reuses the baseline 罪 root exactly. Moral offenders, in Proverbs specifically those who entice toward violence or theft (1:10-19); retain moral offense against a personal God, not a purely social/legal infraction.
Length Of Days
Approved rendering: 长久的日子
Transliteration: chángjiǔ de rìzi
Doctrine: Wisdom as the Source of Life and Blessing
Rejected alternatives: 长寿, 长命百岁式祝福语
Original: אֹרֶך יָמִים
Category: Imagery
Longevity as covenant blessing, a tangible fruit of receiving wisdom’s teaching (3:2,16; 4:10; 9:11). Chinese longevity-blessing language (长寿, 长命) is deeply embedded in folk-religious practice (longevity charms, birthday peaches, star-god veneration); clarify this is covenantal blessing from a personal God for obedience, not a fortune secured through ritual practice. Never combine with folk birthday-blessing idioms (e.g. 福如东海，寿比南山).
Life
Approved rendering: 生命
Transliteration: shēngmìng
Doctrine: Wisdom as the Source of Life and Blessing
Rejected alternatives: 气 (vital life-force)
Original: חַיִּים
Category: Imagery
Physical and covenantal life flowing from receiving wisdom’s teaching (3:2 and throughout). Distinguish from reincarnation-adjacent ‘vital life-force’ concepts (气); this is temporal, covenantal life God grants in this present life, not an ongoing cycle.
Guard Your Heart
Approved rendering: 谨守你的心
Transliteration: jǐnshǒu nǐ de xīn
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Original: נָצַר לֵב
Category: Character
Protective vigilance over the inner moral center, the hinge statement that ‘out of it flow the springs of life’ (4:23). Preserve the causal claim — the heart as source of all outward conduct — rather than reducing to generic emotional self-care.
Acquire Wisdom
Approved rendering: 得智慧
Transliteration: dé zhìhuì
Doctrine: The Fear of the Lord as the Beginning of Wisdom
Rejected alternatives: 买智慧 (overly literal commercial calque)
Original: קָנָה
Category: Wisdom
The commercial-acquisition verb qanah applied metaphorically to obtaining wisdom (4:5,7). Wisdom is worth any cost, though not literally purchasable by merit; read alongside 3:5-6’s trust-not-self-reliance language, not as an independent self-help acquisition program.
Coals Of Fire
Approved rendering: 炭火
Transliteration: tànhuǒ
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Original: גֶּחָלִים
Category: Relational Ethics
The image of feeding a hungry enemy heaping ‘coals of fire’ on his head — shame-inducing kindness (25:21-22), quoted directly in Romans 12:20. Must be rendered IDENTICALLY to the Romans curriculum’s Phase 2 output for this same image, per the baseline’s cross-document consistency principle.
Low Risk Terms
Friend
Approved rendering: 朋友
Transliteration: péngyou
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Original: רֵעַ
Category: Relational Ethics
Companion/neighbor in peer relationship, source of loving accountability (17:17; 18:24; 27:6,9-10,17). Minimal collision risk.
Talebearer
Approved rendering: 说闲话的人
Transliteration: shuō xiánhuà de rén
Doctrine: Speech and Self-Control
Original: נִרְגָּן
Category: Speech
Gossip/divisive talebearer causing interpersonal harm (26:20-22). General-vocabulary extension of the tongue doctrine.
Sluggard
Approved rendering: 懒惰人
Transliteration: lǎnduò rén
Doctrine: Diligence versus Sloth
Original: עָצֵל
Category: Character Contrast
The lazy/slothful person, contrasted throughout with the diligent (6:6-11; 10:26; 12:24,27; 13:4; 15:19; 19:15,24; 20:4,13; 21:5,25; 22:29; 24:30-34; 26:13-16). Low syncretism risk; avoid letting diligence teaching drift into self-generated works-righteousness detached from the fear-of-the-LORD foundation.
Diligent Hand
Approved rendering: 殷勤的手 / 懒惰的手
Transliteration: yīnqín de shǒu / lǎnduò de shǒu
Doctrine: Diligence versus Sloth
Original: יַד־חָרוּצִים / יָד רְמִיָּה
Category: Character Contrast
Idiomatic hand-imagery contrast (10:4; 12:24; 13:4), the foundational text for this doctrine. Transparent compound; minimal risk.
Ant
Approved rendering: 蚂蚁
Transliteration: mǎyǐ
Doctrine: Diligence versus Sloth
Original: נְמָלָה
Category: Imagery
Illustrative creature-wisdom saying (6:6-8; 30:24-25); no doctrinal collision risk.
Proverb Genre
Approved rendering: 箴言
Transliteration: Zhēnyán
Doctrine: N/A — Book Title/Genre
Rejected alternatives: 格言集, 谚语
Original: מָשָׁל
Category: Genre
The book’s genre self-designation (1:1) and the established Chinese Bible title for the book itself. Do not transliterate; use the existing Bible-translation-tradition title.
Just Balance
Approved rendering: 公平的天平
Transliteration: gōngpíng de tiānpíng
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Original: מִשְׁקְלוֹת מִרְמָה (negative) / פֶּלֶס מִשְׁפָּט
Category: Relational Ethics
Commercial honesty in weights and measures as an application of practical righteousness (11:1). Standard commercial-ethics vocabulary; minimal doctrinal risk.
Good Name
Approved rendering: 好名声
Transliteration: hǎo míngshēng
Doctrine: Practical Righteousness in Daily Life
Rejected alternatives: 面子
Original: שֵׁם טוֹב
Category: Character
A good reputation valued above riches (22:1). Distinct from the baseline’s 荣耀 (glory) and from 面子 (‘face’/social reputation, already a rejected alternative for glory in the baseline); ensure this is read as an outcome of godly character, not status-seeking for its own sake.
Strong Tower
Approved rendering: 坚固台
Transliteration: jiāngù tái
Doctrine: Trust in the Lord’s Providence
Original: מִגְדָּל־עֹז
Category: Imagery
The name of the LORD pictured as a strong tower of refuge (18:10). Standard refuge imagery paralleling the Psalms; minimal collision risk.
Referenced passages