complete verse (Proverbs 19:10)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 19:10:

  • Kupsabiny: “It is not good for a foolish person to get a position of luxury/abundance,
    or/and also/even a slave to be ruling.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “It is not appropriate
    for fools to live lives of pleasure,
    It is even less appropriate
    for a slave to reign over a king.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “(It is) not fitting for a foolish man to live a wealthy-life, and (it is) more not fitting for a slave to rule-over the rulers.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “A good life is not appropriate for the foolish-person, but even-more bad is the thinking-about-it when a slave rules-over the king.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • English: “It is not appropriate for foolish people to live luxuriously/like rich people,
    and it is even less appropriate for slaves to rule important officials.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Proverbs 19:10

“It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury”: This line is similar to 17.7a. “It is not fitting” means it is “wrong,” “unsuitable,” “not right.” “To live” is supplied by Revised Standard Version. “Luxury”, literally “delight,” refers to delicate or comfortable surroundings. Some interpreters understand the Hebrew word to mean “leadership” or “control” and so New English Bible/Revised English Bible translate “A fool at the helm is out of place.” This rendering provides an excellent parallel with the second line but is rejected by most translations. In some languages “live in luxury” may be translated, for example, “to live like a rich man” or “to enjoy the big house of the rich.”

“Much less for a slave to rule over princes”: “Much less” translates the same expression used at the opening of the second line of verse 7, where the sense is “how much more. . ..” Here the expression marks the thought expressed as more deplorable or worse than the first. “Slave” translates the same word as used in 17.2. See there for comments. “Princes”, as in 8.16, are not to be thought of as the sons of kings but rather as leaders or rulers. See Good News Translation “noblemen.” We may translate this saying, for example, “It is not right for fools to enjoy a luxurious life. It is even worse for slaves to rule over leaders.”

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Proverbs 19:10

19:10

Notice the parallelism:

10a Luxury is unseemly for a fool—

10b how much worse for a slave to rule over princes!

This is another example of logical reasoning from the lesser to the greater. The reasoning is: The situation in 19:10a is inappropriate. The situation in 19:10b is even more inappropriate. See 11:31 for a list of other examples.

19:10a

Luxury is unseemly: The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as unseemly means “unsuitable,” “inappropriate,” or “wrong.” It refers to a situation that is contrary to what people in a particular culture consider to be normal or proper.

Luxury: This word means a life of extreme comfort. It means to own many nice things that cost a lot of money. In some languages, there are idioms or phrases that refer to this kind of lifestyle. For example:

Living like a rich person
-or-
To have an easy/good life

for a fool: The Hebrew word kǝsil, which the Berean Standard Bible translates as fool, describes a person who is morally foolish. He does what is stupid and wrong because he is mentally lazy and is satisfied with himself.

Some other ways to translate 19:10a are:

Luxury is not appropriate for a fool (NET Bible)
-or-
It isn’t right for a fool to live in luxury (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
Fools should not live in luxury (Good News Translation)

19:10b

how much worse for a slave to rule over princes!: It is inappropriate for a fool to live in luxury. So it is even more inappropriate for a servant or slave to rule over princes. The word that the Berean Standard Bible translates here as princes refers to anyone who belongs to the ruling class. It does not refer specifically to the sons of kings. Some other ways to translate this line are:

It is much less appropriate for a servant to govern leaders.
-or-
or for a slave to rule in place of a king (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
and slaves should not rule over noblemen (Good News Translation)

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