This verse is a variant of 11.14.

“Without counsel plans go wrong”: The term “counsel” refers to “advice,” “recommendations,” “suggestions.” “Plans”, as in 6.18, refers to “devices” or “schemes,” but taken here in a good sense. “Go wrong” means “fail” or “fail to succeed.”

“But with many advisers they succeed”: “Many” translates the same word as rendered “multitude” in 14.28. “Advisers”, which is parallel with “counsel” in the first line, is from the same verb as used in 13.10, where “take advice” is used. The reference to “they” in this line is to “plans” made for the community by the members of the community. “Succeed” means to have a satisfactory outcome. In some languages this idea is expressed as “to end off well,” “to finish in a good way,” or “to have a happy end.”

In many languages terms like “counsel” and “plans” must be expressed as what people do or say. One rendering of the verse which does this is: “If you want to do some work, you must first get the ideas of other people, then your work will go ahead well. If you don’t do this, you will work hard for nothing.”

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 .