PROV 7:16 Interlinear View

SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 7:1–27: Tenth lesson: Here is an example of a young man who was seduced by a married woman

This lesson is another warning to avoid adultery. It begins with an appeal that the son pay attention to his father’s advice. This advice will protect him from being seduced by an adulteress (7:1–5). The main part of the lesson has the form of a first person narrative. The narrator tells how he observed a young man being seduced (7:6–23). First the story focuses on the young man (7:6–9), then it describes the adulteress (7:10–12) and her enticing words (7:13–20). Finally it tells how the young man yielded to the temptation (7:21–23). The lesson concludes with an appeal that the son follow his father’s advice rather than be seduced by the adulteress, because involvement with her will lead to death (7:24–27).

Some other headings for this section are:

Warning Against the Adulteress (NIV)

The story about an adulteress who tempted a young man

Paragraph 7:13–20

This paragraph tells how the woman seduced the young man. After first kissing him (7:13), she then used words in order to seduce him. She told about the favorable circumstances (7:14), used flattery (7:15), appealed to his anticipation of physical pleasure (7:16–18), and reassured him of her husband’s absence (7:19–20).

7:16

Notice the parallel parts that have similar meaning:

^16aI have decked my bed with coverings,

^16b with colored linen from Egypt.

Notice that the first line is more general. The second line adds specific details.

7:16a–b

(combined/reordered)

I have prepared my bed, covering it with beautiful colored sheets from Egypt.
I have put expensive, many-colored sheets from Egypt on my bed.

I have decked my bed with coverings, with colored linen from Egypt: In this verse and in 7:17, the woman goes on to tell him that she has prepared everything necessary for making love in luxurious surroundings.

bed: The word translated as bed refers to a bed frame on which rich people spread their bed coverings. (Poor people slept on mats on the floor.) It was not a “couch” (NRSV) or sofa in the modern sense of a piece of furniture where people sit. In languages that do not have a word for bed, a more general expression like “sleeping place” may be used.

colored linen: The coverings that the woman had arranged on the bed were expensive woven material imported from Egypt. The cloth was probably multicolored, but scholars are not sure that it was linen. The NLT96 clearly expresses the idea of luxury:

My bed is spread with colored sheets of finest linen imported from Egypt. (NLT96)

The CEV is an example of a translation that does not specify linen:

The sheets on my bed are bright-colored cloth from Egypt. (CEV)

For languages that use parallelism, the NET provides a good model. It also makes explicit the idea of luxury:

^16aI have spread my bed with elegant coverings,

^16bwith richly colored fabric from Egypt. (NET)

7:16a

I have decked my bed with coverings,

I have spread/prepared the coverings of my bed.

7:16b

with colored linen from Egypt.

I have covered it with beautiful expensive cloth from Egypt.

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: translate-unknown

עַרְשִׂ֑⁠י

couch_of,my

Here, couch refers to a platform that wealthy people would sit or lie on in order to rest or sleep. If your readers would not be familiar with this type of furniture, you could use the name of something similar in your area or you could use a more general term. Alternate translation: “my place for resting”

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit

מַ֭רְבַדִּים & חֲ֝טֻב֗וֹת אֵט֥וּן מִצְרָֽיִם

coverings & coloured_of linen_of Miʦrayim/(Egypt)

Here, the woman describes the coverings as being colored linen of Egypt, which is expensive and luxurious fabric. If it would be helpful in your language, you could state this explicitly. Alternate translation: “with coverings, which are luxurious colored linen of Egypt”

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 7:16