מָנוֹן

From the study of Proverbs 29:21

Range of meaning

This word appears only here in the Bible, so its meaning has to be reconstructed. The main proposals are:

1. 'Offspring, son, heir': linked to nîn ('offspring', Gen 21:23; Job 18:19) and the verb in Ps 72:17 ('may his name yinnôn', 'propagate, continue'). This is the basis of Strong's 'continuator, heir'.
2. 'Grief, sorrow': the reading of the ancient Greek and Syriac versions.
3. 'Insolent, rebellious, ungrateful': the Latin Vulgate's contumax, followed by several modern versions.
4. A copying error: some scholars emend the word to mādôn, 'strife', which looks very similar in Hebrew script and appears in the very next verse (29:22).

Against the English

KJV, WEB, ESV and NASB give 'son' or 'heir'. YLT gives 'continuator'. BSB gives 'grief'. NIV and NLT give 'insolent' or 'rebel'. NRSV gives a general 'bad end'. These are different guesses at one unclear word, not differences of style.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation) renders the line roughly as 'he who lives wantonly from childhood will be a slave, and in the end he will grieve over himself' (odynēthēsetai). The Vulgate reads postea sentiet eum contumacem, 'afterwards he will find him defiant'. The rabbinic tradition read it in yet another way: the Babylonian Talmud (Sukkah 52b) applies the verse to the evil inclination, which, if indulged from youth, ends up a 'witness' (manon) against a person. Medieval Jewish commentators such as Ibn Ezra connected it to nîn, 'offspring'.