Amsal 7:7-9

7:7 and I saw among the naive –

I discerned among the youths ¹  –

a young man ²  who lacked wisdom. ³ 

7:8 He was passing by the street near her corner,

making his way ⁴  along the road to her house ⁵ 

7:9 in the twilight, the evening, ⁶ 

in the dark of the night. ⁷ 

[7:7]  ¹ tn Heb “sons.”

[7:7]  ² tn Heb “lad” or “youth.”

[7:7]  ³ tn Heb “heart.”

[7:7]  sn This young man who lacked wisdom is one of the simpletons, lacking keen judgment, one void of common sense (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT) or understanding (cf. KJV, ASV). He is young, inexperienced, featherbrained (so D. Kidner, Proverbs [TOTC], 75).

[7:8]  ⁴ tn The verb צָעַד (tsa’ad) means “to step; to march.” It suggests that the youth was intentionally making his way to her house. The verb is the imperfect tense; it stresses continual action parallel to the active participle that began the verse, but within a context that is past time.

[7:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “way of her house.” This expression uses an adverbial accusative of location, telling where he was marching along. The term “house” is the genitive of location, giving the goal.

[7:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “in the evening of the day.”

[7:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “in the middle of the night, and dark”; KJV “in the black and dark night”; NRSV “at the time of night and darkness.”