Translation commentary on Proverbs 7:6

“For”, which begins this verse, is a literal translation of the Hebrew connecting word. Since this is the beginning of a new paragraph or part of the text, a connecting word is not appropriate in many languages. Most English versions omit the word here.

“At the window of my house”: As this is the opening of a short narrative, the translation should show this. Note Good News Translation “Once I was looking out. . ..” We may also say, for example, “One night I was watching. . .” or “It happened one night like this. . ..” “Window” should not be translated as if it were a glass window. It refers to an opening, probably on a veranda covered by vines growing over a trellis. The observer is able to look out without being seen.

“I have looked out through my lattice”: This line may need to be worked into the first to say, for example, “One night as I was looking out through the lattice on my house. . ..” “Lattice” refers to an open framework of strips of metal or wood, overlapped or overlaid in a crisscross pattern. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project rates as “A” the first person singular “I”, as in Revised Standard Version. This is the teacher speaking of his own observations. By contrast the Septuagint has “she,” referring to the woman in verse 5 and the one in verse 10 who meets the young man in the street. The Handbook encourages you to follow the Hebrew text, as in Revised Standard Version.

In languages in which lattices are unknown it may be possible to refer to vines that grow around the entrance of a house or to an opening in the wall that serves as a window and may be closed by a shutter of some kind. A shutter is a screen or covering behind the window opening that hangs or is hinged and has louvers or cracks through which the outside may be seen.

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 7:6)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 7:6:

  • Kupsabiny: “There was a time when I looked out through the window/opening in my house.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “One day I was looking out
    from a window of my house.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “One day, I looked-out-thru-the-window of [my] house,” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “On one-occasion which was night, there-I-was looking-down from the window of my house and there were those whom I peered-out-at who were young-unmarried-men who knew nothing (= little knowledge/experience). One of them who was not thinking/reflective, he was walking approaching the corner of the street which was the location of the house of a certain woman who committed-adultery (lit. does-with-men).” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)

SIL Translator’s Notes on Proverbs 7:6

Paragraph 7:6–9

In this paragraph, the father first describes the location from which he watched a married woman begin to seduce a young man. He then describes the young man and the situation he was in before he actually met the woman.

7:6

For at the window of my house I looked through the lattice: This verse introduces the narrator’s story by describing the location from which he observed the events that follow. In many languages it is not natural to begin a story so abruptly. The Good News Translation makes a general time setting explicit by starting the sentence with:

Once I was looking… (Good News Translation)

Notice, however, that the specific time setting, “…as the dark of night set in,” is given in 7:9. See the General Comment on 7:6–9 at the end of 7:9a–b for some ways to reorder the time setting so that it is described at the beginning of the story.

For at the window…through the lattice: The word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as window refers to an opening that was usually high up in the wall. In this case the window was protected by a lattice, vine-covered trellis, or “shutters” (New Century Version), so that the person inside could look out without being seen from the outside.

I looked through: The verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as looked through usually means to look down from a height. So it is probable that the narrator was looking down from an upper-story window. Everywhere that this verb occurs, it seems to indicate extended watching rather than a single glance.

In languages where shutters or lattices are unknown, these ideas may be translated by using more general terms. For example:

I was peering down through the window of my house.
-or-
I was peering out of my house.

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