PROV 1:10 Interlinear View

SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 1:8–19: First lesson: Avoid evil companions

This first lesson may be summarized as follows:

Introduction: Pay attention to your parents’ advice, because it will improve your character (1:8–9).
Lesson: If robbers try to persuade you to do evil (1:10–14), refuse to join them (1:15), because they will destroy their own lives (1:16–18).
Conclusion: People who are greedy and try to obtain wealth illegally will die (1:19).This outline is based on “The Design of Lecture 1” in Fox (page 92).

Some other headings for this section are:

Warnings against Bad Friends (CEV)

Advice to a young man to not be tempted by evil people

Paragraph 1:10–14

In this paragraph, the quote that starts in 1:11a and ends in 1:14b gives the words that the “sinners” use to “entice” the young man. The concluding exhortation of 1:10b is parallel to the concluding exhortations of 1:15a–b.

1:10a–11a

The “if” clauses in 1:10a and 1:11a are parallel to each other. In some languages, it may not be natural to use two parallel “if” statements in a row. If that is the case in your language, you may:

Combine 1:10a–1:11a into one sentence. For example:
My child, do not allow yourself to be persuaded by criminals if they say, “Come join us^(excl).
Reword one of the “if” clauses (see the last meaning line in the Display for 1:11a).

1:10a

My son, if sinners entice you,

¶ My son, if habitually sinful people tempt you^(sing) to do wrong/evil,
¶ My child, bad/wicked people may try to persuade you to sin.

My son: For the meaning of the phrase My son, see the note on 1:8a. This verse is the first of five instances in which the author repeats the words “my son” or “my sons” within a lesson as well as at the beginning. The reason the words are repeated here may be that this verse is the actual start of the first lesson (1:8–9 serves as a more general introduction to the lesson). So the father/teacher repeats “my son” to emphasize that he is now beginning the main part of the lesson.

In some languages, it may not be natural to repeat the words “my son” so soon after using them in 1:8. If that is true in your language, it may be better not to repeat the words here in 1:10.

if sinners entice you: The word that the BSB translates as sinners indicates habitual sinners or wrongdoers, not just people who occasionally sin. In the following context they are described more specifically as a gang of criminals who murder and rob people.

entice: The word that the BSB translates as entice means to tempt or persuade to do evil.

Some other ways to translate the clause “if sinners entice you” are:

when sinners tempt you (GNT)

if sinful people try to persuade you to do wrong

1:10b

do not yield to them.

do not do what they want you^(sing) to do.
If they do that, refuse to listen to them.

do not yield to them: The phrase that the BSB translates as do not yield to them is only two words in Hebrew. In some languages, the same meaning may be expressed by using a positive command, such as:

turn your back on them (NLT)

refuse to do what they say

General Comment on 1:10a–b

In some languages, it may be more natural to change the order of these two lines so that the command precedes the “if” clause. For example:

My son, do not consent if wicked people try to persuade you to sin.

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / gendernotations

בְּנִ֡⁠י

my_son_of,my

See how you translated the same use of this phrase in [1:8](../01/08.md).

Note 2 topic: grammar-connect-condition-hypothetical

אִם־יְפַתּ֥וּ⁠ךָ חַ֝טָּאִ֗ים

if they,will_entice_you sinners

Solomon is using a hypothetical situation to help his readers understand how important it is to resist temptation from sinners. Use the natural form in your language for expressing a hypothetical situation. Alternate translation: “should it happen that sinners entice you”

Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit

אִם־יְפַתּ֥וּ⁠ךָ חַ֝טָּאִ֗ים אַל־תֹּבֵֽא

if they,will_entice_you sinners not consent

Solomon implies that the sinners would entice his son to sin with them. You could include this information if that would be helpful to your readers. Alternate translation: “if sinners entice you to join them in sinning, do not consent to sin with them”

OET-LV English word order (‘Reverse’ interlinear)

Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.

Acknowledgements: The Hebrew text, lemmas, and morphology are all thanks to the OSHB and some of the glosses are from Macula Hebrew.

OET interlinear PROV 1:10