Translation commentary on Proverbs 7:14

“I had to offer sacrifices”: The expression rendered “sacrifices” refers to the “peace offerings” set forth in Lev 7.11-17. According to 1 Sam 9.11-13 part of the sacrifice was offered to the Lord while the rest was eaten by the offerer along with others. The underlying sense is that the woman is inviting the young man to her house to share the meal with her. Some translations bring this out; for example, “There is meat in my house, because today I made a sacrifice. . ..” According to verses 16-19 the woman’s motivation is clearly to have sex with the youth and not merely to share the meal, although that is no doubt an added attraction for the young man.

“Offer sacrifices” is difficult in languages in which sacrificing of animals is unknown. In some languages it is necessary to use descriptive expressions such as “I have killed an animal and burned it as a gift to God.”

“Today I have paid my vows”: “Vows” refer to promises made to God to do or to abstain from doing something. “Paid my vows” means that the woman has kept her promise by offering the sacrifice. According to Lev 7.16, if the sacrifice was made in payment of “vows”, the meat had to be eaten by the following day. This may explain the Good News Translation rendering “[I] have the meat from the sacrifices” (similarly Contemporary English Version).

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 7:14)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 7:14:

  • Kupsabiny: “‘I have today offered/done sacrifices of fellowship to fulfill the thing I vowed that I would give. There is also/even meat remaining.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Today I have fulfilled my vows
    to offer peace offerings.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “I have-fulfilled today my promise to sacrifice, and there is meat there in the house from the animal which I sacrificed.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “‘I-have-sacrificed/offered-something today to fulfil what I promised and there-is much left-over meat.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)

SIL Translator’s Notes on Proverbs 7:14

7:14a–b

I have made my peace offerings; today I have paid my vows: The meaning of this verse is that the woman had made a vow to the LORD that required her to sacrifice a fellowship offering. She had just done this.

According to Leviticus 7:11–17, her share of the meat from this offering had to be eaten by the next day. So her words implied to the young man that she wanted him to eat the meat with her. A woman was not allowed to eat meat from a sacrifice unless she was ceremonially clean. By inviting the man to eat with her, she also implied that she had finished her monthly period and was ready to have sex.

my peace offerings…my vows: The phrase translated as my vows refers to promises that the woman had made to the LORD that she would do or not do something. In this case, she had evidently promised that she would sacrifice to the LORD peace offerings. This relationship between the offering and the vow may be expressed as follows:

Today I offered a fellowship sacrifice to fulfill my vows.
-or-
Today I fulfilled my promises to the LORD by sacrificing a fellowship offering.

Notice that these examples reorder some of the information in 7:14a–b.

Some English versions omit the clause about the woman’s vows, but this is not recommended. It is very effective irony for the woman to say that she has kept her promise to the LORD, while at the same time, she is trying to break the LORD’s commandment against adultery.

7:14a

I have made my peace offerings: The phrase peace offerings is a figure of speech (synecdoche) that refers to the woman’s share of the meat from the offering. The New Century Version expresses this as:

I made my fellowship offering and took some of the meat home. (New Century Version)

my peace offerings: A peace offering or “fellowship offering” (New International Version) was the only sacrifice of which the offerers could eat some of the meat. They ate it with other people to symbolize both their fellowship with each other and their close relationship with the LORD.

In some languages, a translation of “fellowship offering” may require a fairly long phrase, such as “sacrifice that the people ate together to show their mutual companionship with the LORD.” If this is difficult to fit naturally into the story, an alternative is to not specify the type of sacrifice in the text. For example:

I had to offer sacrifices (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
I have some sacrificial meat (God’s Word)

You can then add a footnote that gives the specific name of the sacrifice and helps your readers understand the more important details.

A suggested footnote is:

This was a sacrifice that people ate together to show their companionship with each other and with the LORD. See Leviticus 7:11–17. The woman implied that she wanted the young man to eat the meat with her. Women were forbidden to eat meat that had been sacrificed unless they were ceremonially clean. So when she invited the man to eat with her, she may also have implied that she was ready to sleep with him.

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