PROV 7:7 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 7:6–9

In this paragraph, the father first describes the location from which he watched a married woman begin to seduce a young man. He then describes the young man and the situation he was in before he actually met the woman.

7:7a

I saw among the simple, I noticed among the youths,

and I saw a group of young people, young men who were likely to do something foolish.
I happened to see a group of immature/naive young men.

The first two lines of this verse are parallel. Notice the parts that are similar in meaning:

^7a I saw among the simple,

^7b I noticed among the youths,

^7ca young man lacking judgment.

The third line describes a specific young man whom the narrator noticed.

I saw…I noticed: The verb I saw refers here to unintentional action. You could make that explicit. For example:

I…happened to see (CEV)

The parallel verb, noticed, is more specific. It means “distinguished” or “discerned.” In some languages, it may be possible to indicate this progression from general to specific. For example:

I saw many inexperienced young men, but noticed one foolish fellow in particular. (GNT)

among the simple…among the youths: These phrases describe a group of young men who were naive, immature, and could easily be persuaded to do something foolish.

See simple in the Glossary. The word “simple” first occurs in 1:4a.

In some languages, it may be preferable to reorder these two parts, since the youths is a more general category than the simple. See the first meaning line in the Display for 7:7a–b (combined/reordered).

7:7a–c

(combined/reordered)

(and) I noticed an unthinking young man, who was with a group of similarly naive companions.

7:7b

a young man lacking judgment,

Among them was a young man who especially lacked common sense.
One of them was a young man who did not think clearly.

a young man lacking judgment: For the words young man, see 1:4b. The phrase lacking judgment indicates here that the young man had very little common sense. He was not able to make good decisions.

The phrase lacking judgment first occurs in 6:32a. For more information, see lacks judgment in the Glossary.

General Comment on 7:7a–c

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

I noticed, in a group of immature young men, one young fellow who had no common sense.

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / parallelism

וָ⁠אֵ֤רֶא בַ⁠פְּתָאיִ֗ם אָ֘בִ֤ינָה בַ⁠בָּנִ֗ים

and,I_saw among,people observed among,sons

These two phrases mean basically the same thing. The second emphasizes the meaning of the first by repeating the same idea with different words. They are both the first part of a sentence, and the next phrase finishes both sentences. If it would be helpful to your readers, you could supply an object for the first phrase, or you could show that the second phrase is stating the first phrase again. Alternate translation: [And I saw a person among the naive ones; I discerned among the sons] or [And I saw among the naive ones, that is, I discerned among the sons]

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor

בַ⁠בָּנִ֗ים

among,sons

Here, sons refers to young men. It does not specifically refer to Solomon’s sons. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express the meaning plainly. Alternate translation: “among the young men”

Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / metonymy

חֲסַר־לֵֽב

lacking_of sense

See how you translated this phrase in [6:32](../06/32.md).

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 7:7