Proverbs 5:16

5:16 Should your springs be dispersed ¹  outside,

your streams of water in the wide plazas?

Proverbs 21:1

21:1 The king’s heart ²  is in the hand ³  of the Lord like channels of water; ⁴ 

he turns it wherever he wants.

[5:16]  ¹ tn The verb means “to be scattered; to be dispersed”; here the imperfect takes a deliberative nuance in a rhetorical question.

[21:1]  ² sn “Heart” is a metonymy of subject; it signifies the ability to make decisions, if not the decisions themselves.

[21:1]  ³ sn “Hand” in this passage is a personification; the word is frequently used idiomatically for “power,” and that is the sense intended here.

[21:1]  ⁴ 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.”