“For her house sinks down to death”: Interpreters have found this line difficult. The figure of the loose woman leading “my son” to death is found also in 5.5; 7.27; and 9.18. The same imagery is used in the Akkadian “Descent of Ishtar to the Nether World.” New Revised Standard Version changes “house” to “way,” but Hebrew Old Testament Text Project rates “house” as “A” and supports the Revised Standard Version rendering. Since the expression is figurative it may refer to the road to her house, to the men who go to her house, or to what goes on in her house as leading to death. As Scott says, “death” in the book of Proverbs means untimely, premature death, the penalty for living foolishly. Good News Translation offers a good translation model. Another is Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “To take the road that goes to her house is to take the road that leads to death.”

“And her paths go to the shades”: “Her paths” may be taken to mean the path she follows, and so her way of life. But “paths” may also refer to the paths that lead to where she lives. “Shades” as used in Job 26.5 and Psa 88.10 refers to the spirits of the dead in Sheol. Here “shades” refers more generally to Sheol or the place of the dead. Because the second line repeats the first so closely in sense, Contemporary English Version reduces the two lines to one: “The road to her house leads down to the dark world of the dead.” Some translations say “If you go with this woman to her house, it is like going on the road to the place of the dead.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .