This saying is a warning against making vows without carefully considering what their cost or effect will be. The two lines of the verse are not parallel, but the second line continues or completes the sense of the first.

“It is a snare for a man to say rashly, “It is holy””: “It is a snare for a man” indicates that what follows is “dangerous” (Revised English Bible) or likely to cause harm for a person. “To say rashly” is literally “to talk wildly”; in the light of the second line it probably means to say something without thinking about it first. Contemporary English Version, which joins the two lines of the verse together, says “. . . making promises to God before you think.” ““It is holy”” is a single word in Hebrew that is used to dedicate something to God; this is the vow or “vows” referred to in the next line. The whole sense is well expressed by Good News Translation’s “promise an offering to God.”

“And to reflect only after making his vows”: This is literally “after the vows to consider.” Most English versions take this as expanding on “say rashly”, giving the sense as “only later to consider his vows” (New International Version) or “stops to consider only after making the vow” (Scott). According to Toy it is possible to take the verb “reflect”, which means literally to “seek” or “make inquiry,” in the sense of “make inquiry into one’s affairs or into the terms of the vow, so as to escape payment.” Along similar lines a footnote in Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia indicates that with different vowels the Hebrew words can mean “take it back in the morning,” which Scott gives as an alternative rendering, “tries to get out of it.” The Handbook advises translators to follow the majority of versions with a rendering such as “and begin to reflect only after making a vow” (New Revised Standard Version) or “to make a vow and then have second thoughts” (Revised English Bible).

The picture of the “snare” or “trap” may not be meaningful in this context in some languages; if this is the case, translators may follow the model of Good News Translation: “Think carefully before you promise an offering to God.” An example of another translation that takes this approach is: “If you want to make an offering to the Lord, think well first. If you don’t, you will suffer because of it.”

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 .