complete verse (Proverbs 20:11)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 20:11:

  • Kupsabiny: “A child is known by what he does,
    and his conduct shows if (he) is upright.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Even a child can be recognized by his behavior,
    whether his character is good or bad.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The deeds of a young-man shows of his true behavior, if he is righteous or not.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Even a child, it-can-be-known whether his person-likeness is good and right by-means-of what he does.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • English: “Even children show by what they do whether they are good or not;
    they show whether what they do/their behavior is honest and right or not.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Proverbs 20:11

The theme of this saying is that conduct is the test of character, even in the case of children. This is a statement in two parts, in which the second line adds an explanation to the first.

“Even a child makes himself known by his acts”: The Hebrew word order is “even [or, also] in-his-deeds makes-himself-recognized-a-child.” This indicates that “Even” probably qualifies the sentence as a whole rather than the word “child”; and it puts the emphasis on “his doings,” that is, his conduct. The Hebrew term translated “child” may also mean “a young man” (New Jerusalem Bible); however, the sense of the term in this section of Proverbs always seems to be someone who is living with and dependent on parents, so most versions have “child” or “children” here. The verb “makes himself known” has the sense of making people recognize what sort of person he is. Good News Translation expresses this line well with “Even children show what they are by what they do.”

“Whether what he does is pure and right”: This adds to the sense of the first line by making clear that the statement is about character in the moral sense. “What he does” has the same meaning as “his acts” in the first line, and now the test of character is whether this is “pure and right”. The Hebrew form of this line begins “whether-pure and-whether-right.” The term “pure” can also be rendered “clean” (as in verse 9) or “righteous,” and the basic meaning of the term rendered “right” is “straight.” “Right” is often rendered “upright” by Revised Standard Version in Proverbs (see 2.7 and 3.32). There is a suggestion that the word translated “right” really should be “evil,” making this line say “whether what he does is good or bad.” Contemporary English Version appears to follow this proposed change (“the good or bad that children do”); but the text makes perfectly good sense without 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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Proverbs 20:11

20:11

In this verse, the second line further describes the means by which a person is known.

11a Even a young man is known by his actions—

11b whether his conduct is pure and upright.

The overall meaning is that a person’s actions show what his character is like, even if he is young.

20:11a

Even a young man is known by his actions: The word Even in this clause implies that the category of a young man is unexpected here. Even a young person’s character is evident in his actions. So it is implied that of course this would also be true of adults. Some other ways to translate this clause are:

Even children are known by their behavior (New Century Version)
-or-
Even children show what they are by what they do (Good News Translation)

a young man: The word that the Berean Standard Bible translates here as a young man can refer to any male from infancy up to early adulthood. (See the note on “to the young” in 1:4b.) In that verse, it probably referred to young people nearing adulthood. Here it probably refers to a younger child. Most versions translate this word as “a child” or “children.”

20:11b

whether his conduct is pure and upright: This line clarifies that the first line is talking about actions or behavior that reveal a person’s moral character.

pure: The word pure refers here to actions that are clean, innocent, or blameless. A different form of the word pure was used in 20:9a.

upright: The word that the Berean Standard Bible translates here as upright refers in this context to actions that are straight or righteous. The Berean Standard Bible translates the same word as “upright” in 11:3a. See the note there.

Some other ways to translate 20:11b are:

if his behavior is pure and straight (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
their actions show if they are innocent and good (New Century Version)

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