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  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Proverbs 5:16 - a declaration or a question ?
  • Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 20:47:20 -0600

Dear Peter,

HH: PUC means be dispersed, be scattered.

If it can only mean precisely that, then the traditional interpretation is just as impossible as you consider Karl's to be. Just as "Nobody disperses channels of water away from someone's eyes", nobody disperses or scatters springs outwards. I suppose springs may be dispersed in geographical location, but that cannot work as any kind of modal as their geographical locations are fixed. So we have to work with some kind of extension of the meaning. In the context of water from springs, the metaphorical extenstion from the spring water being dispersed i.e. not welling up in distinct springs to the springs drying up seems to me a rather probable one.

HH: There is no problem with the verb meaning "be dispersed." It is a metonymy. The springs signify the water that comes from the springs. The NIV has it correctly:

Should your springs overflow in the streets,

The HCSB has:

Should your springs flow in the streets.

The more free NLT has:

Why spill the water of your springs in public, having sex with just anyone?

HH: The Amplified is interpretive and says:

16 Should your offspring be dispersed abroad as water brooks in the streets?

HH: The ESV has:

Should your springs be scattered abroad,
streams of water in the streets?

HH: The NKJV has:

16 Should your fountains be dispersed abroad,
Streams of water in the streets?

HH: This is a significant change, since the KJV had this verse as a declarative, not an interrogative sentence. The NKJV made interpretive changes only where they felt it was absolutely necessary to do so.

HH: The NAB has:

How may your water sources be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets?

HH: The RSV and NRSV have:

16 Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?

HH: The New Century Version turned the rhetorical question into a simple negative, showing that they interpreted the original as a question:

16 Don't pour your water in the streets; don't give your love to just any woman.

HH: The Contemporary English Version did the same thing:

And don't be like a stream from which just any woman may take a drink.

HH: And the Message implies the same rhetorical question turned into a positive statement:

16 It's true. Otherwise, you may one day come home and find your barrel empty and your well polluted.

HH: I am quite confident of the meaning.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard






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