Proverbs 22:20

Excellent things. Heb. shalishom, obviously a misspelling and so corrected in Masoretic tradition to shalishim, which means “officers” (see on 2 Kings 7:2). From this new reading some have derived the improbable meaning “excellent things.” The consonantal Hebrew of the text may also be translated “formerly,” that of tradition, “thirty,” and here, “thirty sayings.” The LXX adopts the numerical idea and reads, “three times,” perhaps in the sense of “repeatedly.”