Amsal 5:14

5:14 I almost ¹  came to complete ruin ² 

in the midst of the whole congregation!” ³ 

Amsal 22:13

22:13 The sluggard says, “There is a lion ⁴  outside!

I will be killed in the middle of the streets!” ⁵ 

[5:14]  ¹ tn The expression כִּמְעַט (kim’at) is “like a little.” It means “almost,” and is used of unrealized action (BDB 590 s.v. 2). Cf. NCV “I came close to”; NLT “I have come to the brink of.”

[5:14]  ² tn Heb “I was in all evil” (cf. KJV, ASV).

[5:14]  ³ tn The text uses the two words “congregation and assembly” to form a hendiadys, meaning the entire assembly.

[22:13]  ⁴ sn The proverb humorously describes the sluggard as making ridiculous excuses for not working – he might be eaten by a lion (e.g., 26:13). It is possible that “lion” is figurative, intended to represent someone who is like a lion, but this detracts from the humor of the exaggeration.

[22:13]  ⁵ tc The LXX changes the phrase to read “murderers in the street” to form a better parallelism, possibly because the verb רָצַח (ratsakh) is used only of humans, not wild animals. The NIV attempts to solve the problem by making the second line a separate claim by the sluggard: “or, ‘I will be murdered in the streets!’”