PROV 7:9 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.

7:9

This verse has two parallel lines that are similar in meaning:

^9a at twilight, as the day was fading

^9b into the dark of night.

7:9a–b

(combined/reordered)

it had already become dark, since it was late in the evening.

at twilight, as the day was fading into the dark of the night: This verse gives the time setting of the events in this story. The phrases that the BSB translates as at twilight, as the day was fading refer to evening/dusk. The parallel term into the dark of the night probably refers to when it is already dark. These terms function together to describe a single period of time. This can be expressed as:

in the evening after it was dark (GNT)

It was late in the evening, sometime after dark (CEV)

Try to give this information in a way that is natural in your language. (See the General Comment that follows.)

General Comment on 7:6–9

In some languages, the whole setting is normally described at the beginning of a story. If that is true in your language, you have a number of options:

Instead of making explicit a general word like “once” or “one day” in 7:6, you can make the time explicit from the context of 7:9. For example:
One night, when I was looking out… Verse 9 can then add other details, such as “it was already dark.” This solution would avoid reordering verses, but it may be awkward in some languages.
Reorder the verses by putting the content of verse 9 before verse 6. For example:
⁹One evening, as the day was fading, as the dark of night set in, ⁶I was at the window… The verse numbering would then read “6–9.” In general, renumbering involving this many verses is not recommended, but if it is acceptable to your readers, this may provide the most natural solution.
Translate verse 8 so that 8b precedes 8a and reword 8a as a time phrase. For example:
He was walking deliberately toward the corner where a woman who committed adultery lived. As he approached her house… See the second meaning line in the Display for 7:8a–b (combined/reordered). This solution avoids verse renumbering.

7:9a

at twilight, as the day was fading

It was already late in the evening,

7:9b

into the dark of the night.

so it was quite dark.

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: writing-background

בְּ⁠נֶֽשֶׁף־בְּ⁠עֶ֥רֶב י֑וֹם בְּ⁠אִישׁ֥וֹן לַ֝֗יְלָה וַ⁠אֲפֵלָֽה

at,twilight in_[the],evening day in_[the],middle_of night and,darkness

In this verse, Solomon provides this background information about the time period when the young man went to the adulterous woman’s house. Use the natural form in your language for expressing background information. You may need to start a new sentence. Alternate translation: “Now it was the time of the twilight breeze, in the evening of day, in the pupil of the night and darkness”

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit

בְּ⁠נֶֽשֶׁף־בְּ⁠עֶ֥רֶב י֑וֹם בְּ⁠אִישׁ֥וֹן לַ֝֗יְלָה וַ⁠אֲפֵלָֽה

at,twilight in_[the],evening day in_[the],middle_of night and,darkness

The phrases twilight breeze and evening of day refer to the time when evening begins, but the pupil of the night and darkness refers to the time later in the night. Together these phrases indicate that it was getting progressively darker as the young man went to the adulterous woman’s house. If it would be helpful in your language, you could state this explicitly. Alternate translation: “in the twilight breeze, in the evening of day, and even in the pupil of the night and darkness”

Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor

בְּ⁠אִישׁ֥וֹן לַ֝֗יְלָה

in_[the],middle_of night

Here, the middle of the night is referred to as a pupil because the pupil is both the middle and the darkest part of the eye. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express the meaning plainly. Alternate translation: “in the middle of the night”

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 7:9

Hebrew word order