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17 Let them be for yourself[a] alone,
and not for strangers with you.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 5:17 tn The ל (lamed) preposition denotes possession: “for you” = “yours.” The term לְבַדֶּךָ (levadekha) is appositional, underscoring the possession as exclusive.
  2. Proverbs 5:17 sn The point is that what is private is not to be shared with strangers; it belongs in the home and in the marriage. The water from that cistern is not to be channeled to strangers or to the public.

17 Let them be yours alone,
And not for strangers with you.

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24 by keeping[a] you from the evil woman,[b]
from the smooth tongue of[c] the loose woman.[d]

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 6:24 tn The infinitive construct is epexegetical here, explaining how these teachings function as lights: “by keeping you.” This verse is the transition from the general admonition about heeding the teachings to the practical application.
  2. Proverbs 6:24 tc The word translated “woman” is modified by רַע (raʿ, “evil”) in the sense of violating the codes of the community and inflicting harm on others. The BHS editors propose changing it to read “strange woman” as before, but there is not support for that. Some commentaries follow the LXX and read רַע as “wife of a neighbor” (cf. NAB; also NRSV “the wife of another”; CEV “someone else’s wife”) but that seems to be only a clarification.
  3. Proverbs 6:24 tn The word “tongue” is not in construct; the word “foreign woman” is in apposition to “smooth of tongue,” specifying whose it is. The word “smooth” then is the object of the preposition, “tongue” is the genitive of specification, and “foreign woman” in apposition.
  4. Proverbs 6:24 sn The description of the woman as a “strange woman” and now a “loose [Heb “foreign”] woman” is within the context of the people of Israel. She is a “foreigner” in the sense that she is a nonconformist, wayward, and loose. It does not necessarily mean that she is not ethnically an Israelite.

24 To (A)keep you from the evil woman,
From the smooth tongue of the foreign woman.

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