21:1 The king’s heart 4 is in the hand 5 of the Lord like channels of water; 6
he turns it wherever he wants.
1 tn Or “forest.” So HALOT 963 s.v. פַּרְדֵּס 2.
2 tc One medieval Hebrew
3 tn The Hebrew text does not include the expression “these requests,” but it is implied.
4 sn “Heart” is a metonymy of subject; it signifies the ability to make decisions, if not the decisions themselves.
5 sn “Hand” in this passage is a personification; the word is frequently used idiomatically for “power,” and that is the sense intended here.
6 tn “Channels of water” (פַּלְגֵי, palge) is an adverbial accusative, functioning as a figure of comparison – “like channels of water.” Cf. NAB “Like a stream”; NIV “watercourse”; NRSV, NLT “a stream of water.”