“The memory of the righteous is a blessing”: “The memory of the righteous” refers not to what the righteous remember but rather to the righteous being remembered by others, especially after their deaths. In the Hebrew “the righteous” renders a masculine singular noun, but need not be so restricted. Note Good News Translation “good people.” In some languages it is unnatural to say that memory is a blessing. However, it is often possible to say “Memory of good people is a gift from God,” “To remember good people is God’s gift,” or “It is God’s kindness that lets us remember good people.”

“But the name of the wicked will rot”: “Name” is parallel with “memory”, as is “wicked” with “righteous”. “Rot” contrasts with “blessing”. For the paralleling of “memory” and “name” see Job 18.17 and Psa 135.13. “Name” and “memory” stand for reputation, the esteem in which a person was held in life and after life. The lives of the righteous were a blessing to others. By contrast the wicked are forgotten. They are like an object that rots and disappears.

In some languages it is not natural to speak of a name rotting. In such cases it may be possible, however, to retain the metaphor by saying, for example, “but the name of the wicked person will be forgotten like a thing that decays and disappears.”

A typical translation of the whole verse is: “When a good person dies, people remember that person and are happy, but when an evil person dies, people quickly forget that one.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .