SIL Translator’s Notes on Proverbs 6:17

6:17a

haughty eyes: This phrase is a figure of speech. It can refer to a “proud look” (Good News Translation) in the eyes of a person with an arrogant attitude or to people who are proud. In some languages, it may not be possible to speak of haughty eyes or a “proud look.” Other ways to translate these expressions are:

pride
-or-
Those who are too proud (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
when people think they are better/higher than others

6:17b

a lying tongue: This phrase is a figure of speech. It can refer either to lies or deceiving words that are spoken by the tongue. It can also refer to people who tell lies. For example:

those who…tell lies (Contemporary English Version)

Some languages may have a different expression for lying that uses the word “tongue” or “mouth.” You may use any of these options to translate this phrase.

6:17c

hands that shed innocent blood: People generally use their hands in some way when they kill someone. To shed innocent blood means to murder someone who has done nothing wrong. For example:

hands that kill innocent people (New Century Version)

In languages that cannot use the word hands figuratively like this, it may be possible to say:

The LORD hates…the killing of innocent people.
-or-
The LORD hates those who murder an innocent person.

© 2012, 2016, 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

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