Text -- Proverbs 20:5 (NET)

20:5 Counsel in a person’s heart is like deep water, but an understanding person draws it out.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Pro 20:5

¹ sn The noun means “advice, counsel”; it can have the connotation of planning or making decisions. Those with understanding can sort out plans.

² tn Heb “in the heart of a man”; NRSV “in the human mind.”

³ tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.

⁴ sn The motives or plans of a person are “difficult to fathom”; it takes someone with understanding to discover and surface them (the verb in the last colon continues the figure with the sense of bringing the plans to the surface and sorting them out).

⁵ tn Heb “a man of understanding”; TEV “someone with insight”; NLT “the wise.”