complete verse (Proverbs 20:5)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 20:5:

  • Kupsabiny: “The thoughts of a person is like a well where water is deep,
    but it is a wise person who draws that water.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “A person’s thoughts are like water in a deep pit,
    people having wisdom will draw them [the thoughts] out.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “(It is) possible that the thinking of a man is like deep water, but if you (sing.) are wise you (sing.) can-fathom/understand it.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The mind/thoughts of a person are deep (connotes hard to understand) like the deep (different word) ocean, but a wise-person can find-out-about (them).” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • English: “Just as it is difficult to bring up water from a deep well, it is difficult to know what people are thinking,
    but someone who has good sense/insight will be able to find out what people are thinking.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Proverbs 20:5

This saying is an observation about human nature, namely that it is not easy to discover a person’s thoughts or a person’s real intentions, but that someone who has understanding is able to do so.

“The purpose in a man’s mind is like deep water”: In this simile a person’s thoughts or intentions are compared to water that is deep (compare the same simile used of a person’s words in 18.4). In the light of the verb “draw out” in the next line Good News Translation takes this to be a picture of a well in which the water is a long way down. In any case the point of comparison is that both deep water and a person’s thoughts are difficult to get hold of. While Contemporary English Version translates the term “purpose” as “someone’s thoughts” and Good News Translation is similar, the sense is more likely to be the intentions, plans, or motives of people, as in 19.21, and translators should try to find equivalents for this sense in their languages. Translations like New Revised Standard Version and New International Version in English retain the rendering “purposes.”

“But a man of understanding will draw it out”: “A man of understanding”, as in 11.12, is a person who has insight (Good News Translation) or intelligence (New Revised Standard Version). Revised English Bible has “a discerning person.” To “draw out” someone’s thoughts is to bring them to light or to “discover them” (Contemporary English Version). The sense of the future “will draw it out” is that the intelligent person is able to understand; Good News Translation has “someone with insight can. . ..”

A model translation for this whole verse is: “The plans of a person lie deep in his heart like something lying at the bottom of deep water, but a person of understanding can draw it from there.”

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 20:5

20:5

Notice the contrasting parallelism:

5a The intentions of a man’s heart are deep waters,

5b but a man of understanding draws them out.

The overall meaning is that it is difficult to know a person’s intentions. But a person who has good sense is able to discover what they are.

20:5a

The intentions of a man’s heart are deep waters: This clause is a metaphor. It compares a person’s intentions or plans to the water in a deep well. Some similarities are:

(a) A person’s thoughts and plans are not visible. They are located inside his mind or heart. The water in a deep well is also located far below the surface of the ground.

(b) It is hard to discover what a person is really thinking. It is also hard to reach the water in a deep well.

Some other ways to translate this metaphor are:

• Change the metaphor to a simile. For example:

The intention in the human heart is like water far below the surface (New American Bible)
-or-
A person’s thoughts are like water in a deep well (Good News Translation)

• Change the metaphor to a simile and make the similarity explicit. For example:

The plans in a person’s mind are like water that is deep under the ground. It is hard to reach.

intentions of a man’s heart: In Hebrew, this phrase is literally “advice/counsel in the heart of a man.” In this context, it probably refers to the “advice” that a person gives to himself. In other words, it refers to his plans, motives, or intentions.

a man’s heart: As in other verses, the Hebrew word for heart refers primarily to the mind or intellect (see the note on 4:4a). In some languages, it may be redundant to specify that a person’s plans or thoughts are “in his mind/heart.” If that is true in your language, you may leave this phrase implied, as in the Good News Translation (quoted above).

deep waters: By itself, the phrase deep waters could refer to any water that is deep. However, the parallel phrase “draws them out” is normally used of pulling water up out of a well. So in this context, deep waters probably refers specifically to the water in a deep well.

20:5b

but a man of understanding draws them out: The verb draws…out continues the metaphor of “deep waters.” Water in a deep well is not easy to get at. It requires effort to pull it up in a bucket. Similarly, it requires a man of understanding to “draw out” the thoughts of another person through careful questioning and conversation.

a man of understanding: The word understanding refers here to a person’s ability to discover another person’s plans or intentions.

Another way to translate 20:5b is:

but if you are smart, you will discover them (Contemporary English Version)

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