PROV 30:25 Interlinear View

SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 30:1–33: Here are the sayings of Agur

This section is a collection of verses that were written or organized by Agur the son of Jakeh.Some scholars think that Agur wrote or collected only verses 1–4, 1–6, 1–9, or 1–14. UBS (page 617), Toy (page 518), and Longman (page 513) are among those who list some of these possibilities. The GNT indicates with quotation marks that Agur’s words end after v.6. No other versions indicate that Agur’s words end before the end of the chapter. Waltke (volume I, page 26) strongly defends the entire chapter as the “oracle” of Agur on the basis of its structural unity. Kidner (page 178) divides the chapter into two sections (1–9) and (10–33), but identifies both as coming from “the sage.” The title of this section (30:1a) is the only place in Scripture that Agur is mentioned. The section is divided into paragraphs that vary from one to five verses. The Notes will suggest a paragraph heading for all paragraphs after 30:1a. It is suggested that you use similar headings in your translation to help the readers follow the changes of topic and audience.

The first nine verses contain Agur’s personal thoughts and prayers. Some are addressed to God, others to his audience. The rest of the chapter contains proverbs on various topics. Some are individual warnings or statements (30:10, 17, 20, 32–33). Others contain several kinds of lists of four items each. The lists in verses 15b–16, 18–19, 21–23, and 29–31 have the same form as the numerical proverb in 6:16–19. (See the paragraph summary for 6:16–19 and the notes on 6:16a–b.) The lists in verses 11–14 and 24–28 have different forms. These will be described in the paragraph summaries where they first occur.

Some other headings for this section are:

The Words of Agur (ESV)

Wise Words from Agur (NCV)

Words that the LORD caused Agur to make known

Paragraph 30:24–28 Four things that are small but very wise

This paragraph is a list of four items, but it is not introduced with the parallel numbers three and four like the numerical proverb in 30:21–23. The first verse introduces two contrasting characteristics which are true of each item in the list. The first line of each verse describes an apparent weakness or disadvantage of a particular animal. The second line describes the unexpected way that the animal makes up for the disadvantage.

30:25

The parts in bold print contrast the weakness of ants with their cleverness in storing food during times when it is plentiful. Proverbs 6:6–8 has a similar description of the way ants gather food. See how you translated those verses.

^25a The ants are creatures of little strength,

^25byet they store up their food in the summer.

30:25a

The ants are creatures of little strength,

Ants are not very strong,
The first of them is ants. They are creatures/animals that lack strength,

The ants are creatures of little strength: In comparison to other creatures, ants do not have great strength. Some other ways to translate this line are:

Ants, who seem to be feeble (CEV)

Ants are not very strong (NCV)

The ants: The ants that are referred to here are probably harvester ants. If your language has a word for a specific kind of ant that stores food during certain seasons of the year, you may use it here. You may also use a general word, as English versions have done.

creatures: In Hebrew, this word is literally “people,” as in the ESV. The same word is also used in 30:26a. It refers here to ants as a group of similar animals or creatures. In some languages, it will not be necessary to identify ants as creatures, especially if this word was already used in 30:24a. Here is another way to translate this word:

species (GW)

30:25b

yet they store up their food in the summer;

but they know how to store food during the time when there is plenty.
but they gather food in their nests to prepare for the winter when they cannot find food.

yet they store up their food in the summer: Ants make up for their small size and strength by the way they prepare adequate food supplies. The Hebrew word that the BSB translates here as store up means “prepares” or “gets ready.” Ants prepare food supplies by gathering them and storing them in their nests.

in the summer: In Palestine, various crops were harvested during the warm season, from March to September. Ants stored food in their nests during these months to prepare for the winter season, when there was no food.

In parts of the world where there is no summer and winter, some other ways to translate these terms are:

Use terms for seasons in your culture that fit this context. For example:
dry season
rainy/typhoon season
Omit the reference to a specific season. Focus instead on the significance of that season in the context. For example:
when food is available

Some other ways to translate this line are:

but they store up food all summer (NLT)

but they know how to gather/store food in their nests during the dry season

but they gather food at harvest time so they will have plenty when no food is left to find

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.