Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageBut whoever passes me by does violence to his own soul — and all who hate me are, in the end, in love with death."
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GBut he who misses me wrongs his own life-being; all who hate me are lovers of death."
KJV
King James VersionBut he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleBut he who fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death.”
Footnotes
*Chotet* (misses/sins against me) shares the root of the common Hebrew word for sin (*chata'*) — to miss the mark, to fall short of the target. The one who bypasses Wisdom literally 'sins against himself,' making self-harm the definition of folly. *Nefesh* — the whole living self: throat, breath, desire, soul, person — is rendered 'life-being' in FOG to preserve its full bodily and spiritual range; FOG Message uses 'soul' to carry its personal and spiritual gravity. The chapter closes with its most startling declaration: to hate Wisdom is not merely to make a poor decision but to love death. The rejection of Wisdom is, at its core, an erotic attachment to destruction — and the text does not let the reader look away from that.