Proverbs 6:5-7
New English Translation
5 Deliver yourself like a gazelle from a snare,[a]
and like a bird from the trap[b] of the fowler.
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;[c]
observe her[d] ways and be wise!
7 It has no commander,
overseer, or[e] ruler,
Footnotes
- Proverbs 6:5 tn Heb “from the hand.” Most translations supply “of the hunter.” The word “hand” can signify power, control; so the meaning is that of a gazelle freeing itself from a snare or a trap that a hunter set.
- Proverbs 6:5 tc Heb “hand” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV). Some mss and versions have it as “trap,” which may very well represent an interpretation too.
- Proverbs 6:6 sn The sluggard (עָצֵל, ʿatsel) is the lazy or sluggish person (cf. NCV “lazy person,” and NRSV and NLT “lazybones”).
- Proverbs 6:6 sn A fact seemingly unknown until recent centuries is that although worker ants are sterile, they are female. The gender of the word “ant” in Hebrew is feminine.
- Proverbs 6:7 tn The conjunction vav (ו) here has the classification of alternative, “or” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 71, §433).
Proverbs 6:5-7
New International Version
5 Free yourself, like a gazelle(A) from the hand of the hunter,(B)
like a bird from the snare of the fowler.(C)
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;(D)
consider its ways and be wise!
7 It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
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