Translation commentary on Proverbs 7:18

“Come, let us take our fill of love till morning”: “Come” may need to be rendered more familiarly as “Come with me.” Some link this with the following verbs and say, “Come and sleep with me.” “Take our fill” is literally “drink our fill,” which is figurative for “have as much sex as we can.” “Love” here is a plural form, and Toy says about it and the parallel word in the second line that the two words are used in the Old Testament only in a sexual sense. “Till morning” has the sense of “the whole night long” or “all night until morning comes.”

We may translate this line, for example, “Come home with me and let’s make love till morning” or “Come with me and we will sleep together all night long.”

“Let us delight ourselves with love”: “Delight” means to enjoy or take pleasure in doing something. Here the context makes it clear that the sense is to enjoy the act of having sex. Good News Translation “We’ll be happy in each other’s arms” expresses the thought, if not the form, of this line.

In rendering this verse translators need to be sensitive both to the natural idiomatic ways of referring to sexual activity and to what words and expressions must be avoided for public reading and discussion. Some say, for example, “. . . [sleep with me] and we-two will play and be happy all night.”

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 7:18)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 7:18:

  • Kupsabiny: “Come let us enjoy each other and rejoice together up to tomorrow morning.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Come, today we will have pleasure
    the whole night.
    The two of us will embrace
    and sleep the whole night.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “So come, let- us (incl.) -lie-down-beside-(each-other)/(have-sexual-relations); let- us (incl.) -be-satisfied with happiness until morning,” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Let us (du) go there so that we (du) will-be-happy the entire-night-long.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)

SIL Translator’s Notes on Proverbs 7:18

7:18

Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:

18a Come, let us take our fill of love till morning.

18b
Let us delight in loving caresses !

7:18a

Come, let us take our fill of love till morning: The phrase take our fill of love is literally “be saturated with loves.” Since it is parallel with the second line, it may mean “let’s fill/saturate ourselves with love.” With this figurative language, the woman invites the young man to make love with her as much as possible all night long.

7:18b

Let us delight in loving caresses: This line has essentially the same meaning as the first line. It means to delight or take pleasure in lovemaking. The word translated here as loving is also found in 5:19a.

General Comment on 7:18a–b

Both lines of this verse refer explicitly to physical lovemaking. Be sure to use appropriate expressions in your language so that people will not be embarrassed if this passage is read in public.

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

Let’s go there and make love all night. (Contemporary English Version)

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