This verse explains the requests made in lines 2 and 3 of verse 8.

“Lest I be full and deny thee”: “Lest I be full” refers back to “riches” in the previous verse. It may be expressed as “if I have too much” (Revised English Bible). This line and the next refer to the case where the person has more than necessary. They describe what might happen in that situation. In English various constructions can be used to express this; for example, “Otherwise, I may. . .” (New International Version), “If I have too much . . . I might. . .” (Contemporary English Version, and see also Good News Translation). “Deny thee” means “say that I do not know you”; see next line.

“And say, “Who is the Lord?””: The question is rhetorical, and means something like “I don’t know the Lord” or “I don’t need to have anything to do with the Lord.” Since the question has the same sense as “deny thee”, Good News Translation combines the two expressions to say simply, “I might say that I do not need you.”

“Or lest I be poor, and steal”: “Lest I be poor” refers back to “poverty” in the previous verse. It may be expressed as “if I don’t have enough” (Contemporary English Version). The last two lines of the verse refer to the case where the person has less than enough to live on. They describe what might happen in that situation. The construction in Hebrew is the same as for the previous two lines. Most English versions link this to the first case by beginning with something like “Or I may. . .,” “And if I am. . .,” or “But if I am. . ..” For “steal” see 6.30. The verb “steal” should probably be taken as referring to a repeated or habitual activity: “take to stealing” (New Jerusalem Bible).

“And profane the name of my God”: The Hebrew verb rendered “profane” is literally to “seize” or “do violence to.” The sense here is to “bring into disrepute” or to “disgrace” or “dishonor.” This would be the effect of the activity of stealing mentioned in the previous line. If the whole prayer is addressed to God at the beginning (see verse 7), then “the name of my God” should become “your name” (Contemporary English Version) here. In some languages it may be more natural to omit “the name of” and say simply “God” or “you.”

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 .