16:9 A person 1 plans his course, 2
but the Lord directs 3 his steps. 4
21:1 The king’s heart 5 is in the hand 6 of the Lord like channels of water; 7
he turns it wherever he wants.
1 tn Heb “the heart of a man.” This stresses that it is within the heart that plans are made. Only those plans that are approved by God will succeed.
2 tn Heb “his way” (so KJV, NASB).
3 tn The verb כּוּן (kun, “to establish; to confirm”) with צַעַד (tsa’ad, “step”) means “to direct” (e.g., Ps 119:133; Jer 10:23). This contrasts what people plan and what actually happens – God determines the latter.
4 sn “Steps” is an implied comparison, along with “way,” to indicate the events of the plan as they work out.
5 sn “Heart” is a metonymy of subject; it signifies the ability to make decisions, if not the decisions themselves.
6 sn “Hand” in this passage is a personification; the word is frequently used idiomatically for “power,” and that is the sense intended here.
7 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.”