Proverbs 6:31-33 New English Translation
31 Yet[a] if he is caught[b] he must repay[c] seven times over,
he might even have to give[d] all the wealth of his house.
32 A man who commits adultery with a woman lacks sense,[e]
whoever does it destroys his own life.[f]
33 He will be beaten and despised,[g]
and his reproach will not be wiped away;[h]
Footnotes
- Proverbs 6:31 tn The term “yet” is supplied in the translation.
- Proverbs 6:31 tn Heb “is found out.” The perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive may continue or advance from a previous verb’s framework. Here it advances from “steals” in 6:30 and serves as the condition for the following imperfect verb.
- Proverbs 6:31 tn The imperfect tense has an obligatory nuance. The verb in the Piel means “to repay; to make restitution; to recompense”; cf. NCV, TEV, CEV “must pay back.”
- Proverbs 6:31 tn This final clause in the section is somewhat cryptic. The guilty thief must pay back sevenfold what he stole, even if it means he must use the substance of his whole house. The verb functions as an imperfect of possibility: “he might even give.”
- Proverbs 6:32 tn The term לֵב (lev, “mind, heart”) here represents thinking by means of metonymy (i.e., the mind stands for what the mind does). The overstatement, “lacking the ability to think,” means lacking discernment, wisdom, good sense. Cf. NAB “is a fool”; NIV “lacks judgment”; NKJV “lacks understanding,” NCV, NRSV “has no sense.”
- Proverbs 6:32 tn Heb “soul.” The noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul”) functions as a metonymy of association for “life” (BDB 659 s.v. 3.c).
- Proverbs 6:33 tn Heb “He will find (or obtain) a wound and contempt.”
- Proverbs 6:33 sn Even though the text has said that the man caught in adultery ruins his life, it does not mean that he was put to death, although that could have happened. He seems to live on in ignominy, destroyed socially and spiritually. He might receive blows and wounds from the husband and shame and disgrace from the spiritual community. D. Kidner observes that in a morally healthy society the adulterer would be a social outcast (Proverbs [TOTC], 75).
New English Translation (NET)
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