awaiting the arrow that would pierce its heart. He was like a bird flying into a snare, little knowing it would cost him his life.
Parallel translations
- WEB Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn’t know that it will cost his life.
- KJV Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.
- BSB until an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare—not knowing it will cost him his life.
- NKJV Till an arrow struck his liver. As a bird hastens to the snare, He did not know it would cost his life.
- NASB Until an arrow pierces through his liver; As a bird hurries to the snare, So he does not know that it will cost him his life.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
His folly will cost him his life, like a bird rushing into a snare. He does not grasp the deadly stakes.
Overview
The fatal image sharpens: an arrow will pierce him, and like a bird darting into a trap, he does not realize his life is forfeit. Sexual sin is again shown to be a matter of life and death. The verse warns that the pleasures of sin conceal a deadly price.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Eccl 9:12For man also doesn’t know his time. As the fish that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.
- Prov 9:18But he doesn’t know that the departed spirits are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
- Prov 1:17For in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird:
- Num 25:8–9He went after the man of Israel into the pavilion, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 7:23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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