7:27

Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:

27a Her house is the road to Sheol,

27b
descending to the chambers of death.

There is an ellipsis in 7:27b. In some languages, it may be necessary to supply the missing words from 7:27a. For example:

27b
⌊the road⌋ descending to the chambers of death.

7:27a

Her house is the road to Sheol: In Hebrew, the phrase road to Sheol is literally “ways of Sheol.” The plural “ways” may indicate that many roads lead from her house to Sheol, the world of the dead. Most English versions, however, do not specify the plural. This figurative language means that if a man enters her house, he begins a pattern of behavior that will lead him in one way or another to death. The Good News Translation expresses this well:

If you go to her house, you are on the way to the world of the dead. (Good News Translation)

7:27b

descending: The Hebrew verb translated as descending reflects the OT view of Sheol as a place located down inside the earth. The Good News Translation does not make this explicit.

7:27a–b

Sheol, descending to the chambers of death: Both of these phrases refer to Sheol, the world or place of the dead. The phrase translated here as chambers of death seems to describe the world of the dead as a house with many rooms, and the woman’s house is the entrance. However, in poetry, chambers may be a figure of speech (synecdoche) that refers to the whole place. So the Good News Translation has simply “death,” and the Contemporary English Version combines both phrases as “the world of the dead.”

For more information on how to translate “the grave” or “Sheol,” see the note on 1:12a.

General Comment on 7:27a–b

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

Her house is like a road that leads down to the place of the dead.

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