PROV 3:10 Interlinear View

SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 3:1–12: Third lesson: Humbly trust in the LORD

This lesson consists of a series of commands. Each set of parallel commands is followed by a promised result, except for 3:12, which gives a reason for the command.

Another heading for this section is:

Trusting in the Lord (NLT)

3:10

Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:

^10athen your barns will be filled with plenty,

^10band your vats will overflow with new wine.

This verse expresses the result of obeying the command in 3:9.

3:10a

then your barns will be filled with plenty,

If you^(sing) do that, your places for storing crops will be completely filled,
Then you will harvest so much that you will fill your barns/granaries to the top.

your barns: The word that the BSB translates as barns refers to granaries or other storage places for grain and other crops.According to Waltke (page 248), the produce that farmers stored included legumes as well as cereal grains. It may have been stored in “small rooms or large storehouses.” Other ways to translate this phrase are:

your granaries

your storehouses

the places where you store crops

filled with plenty: There are two ways to interpret the Hebrew phrase that the BSB translates as filled with plenty:

It means “filled with plenty,” that is, completely filled. For example:
will be full (NCV)
will be filled completely (NET) (BSB, ESV, GW, NASB, NCV, NET, NIV, NRSV)
It means “filled with grain.” For example:
filled with grain (REB) (CEV, NAB, NJB, NLT, REB, GNT)

You may follow either interpretation. There is little difference in meaning between them. A barn that is completely filled would contain mostly grain. The Display follows interpretation (1).

3:10a–b

(combined/reordered)

Then you will have more crops/food and grapes than you will ever need.

3:10b

and your vats will overflow with new wine.

and you^(sing) will fill your wine jars/vats to overflowing with freshly made wine.
You will also have more than enough wine to fill all your wine jars/containers.

and your vats: The word vats refers to a place in which grape juice was stored as it fermented into wine. People placed the grapes in an area that was carved or hollowed out of a large flat stone. Then they trampled the grapes with their feet. The juice from the crushed grapes ran down through a channel carved in the rock into a lower area or “vat” that was also carved out of the rock.

Some ways to translate the word vats are:

Use a descriptive phrase. For example:
wine jars
wine containers
Make the container implicit. For example:
you will have too much wine to store it all (GNT)

Additional cultural information about OT wine presses may be placed in a footnote if desired.

will overflow: The verb that the BSB translates as overflow is literally “burst open.” “Burst open” is an example of hyperbole. It is used here to emphasize that the wine vats will be completely full. You should use an expression in your language that emphasizes the large quantity of the wine. Here is another way to translate this:

your vats will be bursting (NRSV)

with new wine: In Hebrew, new wine refers to wine that has been pressed recently from grapes and gathered into vats.According to NIDOTTE, this wine was “especially desired and enjoyable.” Waltke (page 248) quotes one scholar as saying that new wine was especially potent wine that was made from the first drippings of the juice before the grapes had been trampled. But all other lexicons and commentaries understand this to be unfermented wine. It is not yet fermented or is just beginning to ferment. Some other ways to translate this word are:

fresh wine (GW)

fermenting grape/fruit juice

grape juice that is beginning to ferment

The emphasis here is on the quantity of the wine, not its age. If it is awkward to specify newly made wine and still maintain the emphasis on its abundance, you may want to use a more general term. For example:

wine (ESV)

wine: The word wine refers to an alcoholic drink. It is made from the juice of a fruit called grapes. When grape juice ferments, it becomes wine.

In some areas, people may not be familiar with grapes or with wine. If that is true in your area, some other ways to translate wine are:

General Comment on 3:10a–b

Use a specific term for another alcoholic drink made from fruit. For example:
pomegranate wine
a drink like palm wine
Use a descriptive phrase. For example:
fruit juice/water
grape juice

In some languages, it may be more natural to combine and/or reorder the parallel terms, as the CEV has done. The CEV also makes the storage containers for grain and wine implicit. It mentions only the contents:

Then you will have more grain and grapes than you will ever need.

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: grammar-connect-logic-result

וְ⁠יִמָּלְא֣וּ אֲסָמֶ֣י⁠ךָ שָׂבָ֑ע

so,that_they_may_be_filled barns_of,your plenty

Here, and introduces the result of obeying the command stated in the previous verse. Use the most natural way in your language to indicate result. You may need to start a new sentence. Alternate translation: “If you do these things, then your storehouses will be filled with plenty” or “This will result in your storehouses being abundantly full”

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / activepassive

וְ⁠יִמָּלְא֣וּ אֲסָמֶ֣י⁠ךָ שָׂבָ֑ע

so,that_they_may_be_filled barns_of,your plenty

If your language does not use this passive form, you could express the idea in active form or in another way that is natural in your language. Alternate translation: “and your store houses will become abundantly full” or “and Yahweh will abundantly fill your storehouses”

Note 3 topic: translate-unknown

אֲסָמֶ֣י⁠ךָ

barns_of,your

The word storehouses refers to buildings or rooms where crops are stored after farmers have harvested them. If your readers would not be familiar with this type of storage place, you could use the name of something similar in your area or you could use a more general term. Alternate translation: “your barns” or “your place for storing harvested crops”

Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit

שָׂבָ֑ע

plenty

Here, abundance refers to a plentiful amount of harvested crops. If it would be helpful in your language, you could state this explicitly. Alternate translation: “a plentiful amount of harvested crops”

Note 5 topic: translate-unknown

וְ֝⁠תִיר֗וֹשׁ יְקָבֶ֥י⁠ךָ יִפְרֹֽצוּ

and,new_wine wine-vats_of,your overflow

The word vats refers to large containers in which the juice of grapes called new wine was processed into wine. If a very large amount of new wine was put in the vat, it could flow out and spill over the top of the vat. If your readers would not be familiar with wine or the way it is produced, you could refer to something similar in your area or you could use a more general term. Alternate translation: “and your storage containers for juice will become so extremely full that they break open”

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 3:10