PROV 5:5 Interlinear View

SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 5:1–23: Eighth lesson: Avoid the temptation to commit adultery

A summary of this lesson is: Stay away from a woman who commits adultery, or you will bitterly regret it (5:1–14). Instead, be delighted with your own wife (5:15–20), because the LORD sees everything you do and will punish wickedness (5:21–23).

Some other headings for this section are:

Advice to stay away from a woman who commits adultery

Warning About Adultery (NCV)

Avoid Adultery (GW)

Be Faithful to Your Wife (CEV)

Paragraph 5:1–6

In this paragraph, the father urges the son to pay attention to his wise words (5:1) so that he will always be cautious and sensible in what he does and says (5:2). The reason for this caution is that it will enable him to resist the tempting invitation of the adulteress whose path leads straight to death (5:3–6).

5:5

Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:

^5a Her feet go down to death;

^5b her steps lead straight to Sheol.

In 5:4, the focus was the result of sleeping with an adulteress. In 5:5, attention changes to the woman herself. In some languages, this change of focus may need to be made explicit. See the first meaning line in the Display for 5:5a–b (combined/reordered) for one way to do this.

5:5a–b

(combined/reordered)

As for the woman herself, she heads straight toward Sheol, the place where dead people stay.
If you follow her, she will lead you down to the world of the dead. (CEV)

Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol: The phrase Her feet is a figure of speech (synecdoche) that refers to the woman herself. She is described as going down to death. The Jews commonly thought of the place of the dead as being “down,” under the earth. The parallel clause her steps lead straight to Sheol indicates that the woman is walking deliberately and directly toward the place of the dead.Fox (page 192).

In Hebrew, verses 5:5–6 mention only the woman. However, in the context of 5:3–4, verse 5:5 contains an implied warning to the young man that the woman will lead him to the same place. Some English versions make this explicit. For example:

She will take you down to the world of the dead; the road she walks is the road to death. (GNT)

Other versions leave this warning implied. In deciding whether to make this information explicit, be sure to consider the whole context.

to death…to Sheol: In Hebrew, death is parallel to Sheol. Both terms refer here to the place where dead people stay.

5:5a

Her feet go down to death;

Her destination is the place of the dead;

5:5b

her steps lead straight to Sheol.

she walks directly to the grave.

Sheol: In Hebrew, Sheol refers to the place of the dead. For more information on ways to translate “Sheol,” see the note on 1:12a.

General Comment on 5:5a–b

In some languages, it may be more natural to reorder and/or combine the parallel parts. For example:

That woman is going directly toward Sheol, the place of the dead.

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / parallelism

רַ֭גְלֶי⁠הָ יֹרְד֣וֹת מָ֑וֶת שְׁ֝א֗וֹל צְעָדֶ֥י⁠הָ יִתְמֹֽכוּ

feet_of,her go_down death shəʼōl steps_of,her take_hold

These two clauses mean basically the same thing. The second clause emphasizes the meaning of the first by repeating the same idea with different words. If it would be helpful to your readers, you could connect the clauses with a word that shows that the second clause is repeating the first one, not saying something additional. Alternate translation: “Her feet are going down to death; yes, her steps take hold of Sheol”

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor

רַ֭גְלֶי⁠הָ יֹרְד֣וֹת מָ֑וֶת שְׁ֝א֗וֹל צְעָדֶ֥י⁠הָ יִתְמֹֽכוּ

feet_of,her go_down death shəʼōl steps_of,her take_hold

Here Solomon speaks of the behavior of the adulterous woman as her feet and her steps. He speaks of this behavior causing her death and the death of whoever commits adultery with her as if they were walking on a path that leads down to death or to Sheol. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express the meaning plainly. Alternate translation: “Her lifestyle ends in death; her way of living takes a person straight to Sheol” or “Her behavior results in death; by doing what she does, she will end up dead”

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 5:5

Hebrew word order