Amsal 4:26

4:26 Make the path for your feet ¹  level, ² 

so that ³  all your ways may be established. ⁴ 

Amsal 5:16

5:16 Should your springs be dispersed ⁵  outside,

your streams of water in the wide plazas?

[4:26]  ¹ tn Heb “path of your foot.”

[4:26]  ² sn The verb is a denominative Piel from the word פֶּלֶס (peles), “balance; scale.” In addition to telling the disciple to keep focused on a righteous life, the sage tells him to keep his path level, which is figurative for living the righteous life.

[4:26]  ³ tn The vav prefixed to the beginning of this dependent clause denotes purpose/result following the preceding imperative.

[4:26]  ⁴ tn The Niphal jussive from כּוּן (cun, “to be fixed; to be established; to be steadfast”) continues the idiom of walking and ways for the moral sense in life.

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