darkness

In Gbaya, the notion of darkness in Proverbs 7:9 is emphasized with ndiyiŋ, an ideophone referring to the darkness of the last moments of the day before nightfall.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

See also ignorance.

Translation commentary on Proverbs 7:9

“In the twilight, in the evening”: The word rendered “twilight” can mean the dim period of morning light when the sun is still below the horizon or the “twilight” of evening. Here it is the evening when nighttime is approaching.

“At the time of night and darkness”: This line seems to go beyond the first in terms of passing from twilight of evening to darkness of night. The word rendered “time” by Revised Standard Version is the same as the word for “pupil of the eye” in verse 2. Here it is taken by Hebrew Old Testament Text Project to mean “middle of the night.” This, however, seems to conflict with the sense in the first line, and so Revised Standard Version and others (without a footnote) make a slight change in the Hebrew word to get “time”. New Revised Standard Version supports Revised Standard Version, as does also Good News Translation “in the evening after it was dark.” No doubt the poetic movement of thought from “twilight” to “middle of the night” is normal in Hebrew parallelism. However, from the point of view of meaningful text, Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation are better and are recommended.

Translators may find that verse 9, which expresses the time of the action in this short narrative, fits more naturally at the beginning of verse 8. In that case we may reverse the order of verses 8 and 9 by translating, for example, “(8-9) Late in the evening as night was approaching, a young man was walking along the street near the corner where a certain woman lived.”

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 .

complete verse (Proverbs 7:9)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 7:9:

  • Kupsabiny: “It was then going to be dark.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “By that time it had already become dark.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “It was already twilight/dusk that time and getting-dark already.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “On one-occasion which was night, there-I-was looking-down from the window of my house and there were those whom I peered-out-at who were young-unmarried-men who knew nothing (= little knowledge/experience). One of them who was not thinking/reflective, he was walking approaching the corner of the street which was the location of the house of a certain woman who committed-adultery (lit. does-with-men).” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)

SIL Translator’s Notes on Proverbs 7:9

7:9

This verse has two parallel lines that are similar in meaning:

9a
at twilight, as the day was fading

9b
into the dark of night.

7:9a–b

at twilight, as the day was fading into the dark of the night: This verse gives the time setting of the events in this story. The phrases that the Berean Standard Bible translates as at twilight, as the day was fading refer to evening/dusk. The parallel term into the dark of the night probably refers to when it is already dark. These terms function together to describe a single period of time. This can be expressed as:

in the evening after it was dark (Good News Translation)
-or-
It was late in the evening, sometime after dark (Contemporary English Version)

Try to give this information in a way that is natural in your language. (See the General Comment that follows.)

General Comment on 7:6–9

In some languages, the whole setting is normally described at the beginning of a story. If that is true in your language, you have a number of options:

• Instead of making explicit a general word like “once” or “one day” in 7:6, you can make the time explicit from the context of 7:9. For example:

One night, when I was looking out…

Verse 9 can then add other details, such as “it was already dark.” This solution would avoid reordering verses, but it may be awkward in some languages.

• Reorder the verses by putting the content of verse 9 before verse 6. For example:

9 One evening, as the day was fading, as the dark of night set in, 6 I was at the window…

The verse numbering would then read “6–9.” In general, renumbering involving this many verses is not recommended, but if it is acceptable to your readers, this may provide the most natural solution.

• Translate verse 8 so that 8b precedes 8a and reword 8a as a time phrase. For example:

He was walking deliberately toward the corner where a woman who committed adultery lived. As he approached her house…

See the second meaning line in the Display for 7:8a–b (combined/reordered). This solution avoids verse renumbering.

© 2012, 2016, 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.