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Proverbs 6:4-6
New English Translation
Proverbs 6:4-6
New English Translation
4 Permit no sleep to your eyes[a]
or slumber to your eyelids.
5 Deliver yourself like a gazelle from a snare,[b]
and like a bird from the trap[c] of the fowler.
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;[d]
observe her[e] ways and be wise!
Footnotes
- Proverbs 6:4 tn Heb “do not give sleep to your eyes.” The point is to go to the neighbor and seek release from the agreement immediately (cf. NLT “Don’t rest until you do”).
- Proverbs 6:5 tn Heb “from the hand.” Most translations supply “of the hunter.” The word “hand” can signify power, control; so the meaning is that of a gazelle freeing itself from a snare or a trap that a hunter set.
- Proverbs 6:5 tc Heb “hand” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV). Some mss and versions have it as “trap,” which may very well represent an interpretation too.
- Proverbs 6:6 sn The sluggard (עָצֵל, ʿatsel) is the lazy or sluggish person (cf. NCV “lazy person,” and NRSV and NLT “lazybones”).
- Proverbs 6:6 sn A fact seemingly unknown until recent centuries is that although worker ants are sterile, they are female. The gender of the word “ant” in Hebrew is feminine.
New English Translation (NET)
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