5:10 lest strangers devour 1 your strength, 2
and your labor 3 benefit 4 another man’s house.
5:17 Let them be for yourself 5 alone,
and not for strangers with you. 6
1 tn Or “are sated, satisfied.”
2 tn The word כֹּחַ (coakh, “strength”) refers to what laborious toil would produce (so a metonymy of cause). Everything that this person worked for could become the property for others to enjoy.
3 tn “labor, painful toil.”
4 tn The term “benefit” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.
5 tn The ל (lamed) preposition denotes possession: “for you” = “yours.” The term לְבַדֶּךָ (lÿvadekha) is appositional, underscoring the possession as exclusive.
6 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.