“a shield for those who walk blamelessly.” The versions and commentators are divided as to whether the “He” that opens the verse should be pulled by ellipsis into the second phrase making the second stanza in the verse read, “He is a shield,” or whether the verse is saying that sound advice is the shield for those who walk blamelessly. It is quite possible that a native Hebrew reader of that time would see both meanings here, making the verse an amphibologia (double entendre), with both meanings being true. It is certainly true that God is a shield to those who walk uprightly, and it is also true that sound advice is a shield, as we see throughout Proverbs. Since the Hebrew text does not have “He is” in the second stanza, we deferred to the way the Hebrew text was worded.

[See figure of speech “amphibologia.”]