Translation commentary on Proverbs 6:8

“She prepares her food in summer”: “She” is the singular ant. You may need to say something equivalent to “Ants prepare. . .” or “They prepare. . ..” “Prepare” is to be taken in the sense of storing up or gathering and storing. In some societies this must be expressed as “put away for the time when food is short” or “. . . for hard times.” “Food” is literally “bread,” but the sense is general and refers to food that ants gather and store. We may say, for example, “In the summer they carry their food into their nests.” In place of “summer” it may be necessary to say “during the harvest season” or “the time when people harvest their crops.” Some languages speak of “summer” as the dry season or the rainy season. Translators should be careful to use a time expression here that is appropriate to the activity of ants in their own area.

“And gathers her sustenance in harvest”: The parallel terms “gathers” and “prepares” should be appropriate for the activities of ants. “Sustenance” is parallel to “food” in the first line and has the same meaning. “Harvest” refers to the gathering of crops from the fields or gardens. In some languages this is expressed, for example, “when it is time for people to bring in crops from their gardens.” In cultures where some food is grown and harvested throughout the year, this can be rendered, for example, “when there is plenty of food” or “in good times.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

complete verse (Proverbs 6:8)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 6:8:

  • Kupsabiny: “but it is able to collect its food and keep (it) when it is harvest time.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “they gather their food for the winter
    in the rainy season.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “they gather their food when it is hot-season and when it is harvest-season, so-that they have food when it is rainy-season.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “but they gather what they will-eat in the dry-season and harvest-season so-that what they need in the rainy-season will-be-prepared.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)

SIL Translator’s Notes on Proverbs 6:8

6:8

Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:

8a it prepares its provisions in summer ;

8b it gathers its food at harvest.

These lines function together to emphasize that ants gather and store food supplies during times when food is available. They do this to prepare for times when food cannot be found.

6:8a–b

prepares…gathers: In Hebrew, the word prepares means “gets ready.” Ants prepare food supplies by gathering them and storing them in their nests. Other ways to translate these terms are:

procures…stores up (New American Bible)

in summer…at harvest: No contrast is intended between these two terms. In Palestine, various crops were harvested during the warm season, from March to September. Ants stored food in their nests during these months to prepare for the winter season, when there was no food.

Some English versions make this information explicit. For example:

they store up their food during the summer, getting ready for winter (Good News Translation)
-or-
they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter (New Living Translation (2004))

You will need to decide whether to make the ants’ purpose explicit in your translation.

In parts of the world where there is no summer and winter, some other ways to translate these terms are:

• Use one expression for the parallel terms in summer and at harvest. For example:

harvest season (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
summer (Good News Translation)

• Use terms for seasons in your culture that fit this context. For example:

dry season
-or-
rainy/typhoon season

• Omit the reference to a specific season, and focus instead on the significance of that season in the context. For example:

when food is available…when food is not available

General Comment on 6:8a–b

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

they gather their food during the dry/harvest season and store it

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