“Commit your work to the Lord“: This line says literally “roll your works on the Lord,” an idiom used also in Psa 37.5. The sense is “trust,” “confide in” or “rely on.” “Work” is plural in Hebrew and refers to actions, deeds, or undertakings. The whole line is equivalent to “Trust everything you do to the Lord.” One example of how this is expressed in translation is “Everything you want to do, put it in the hand of the Lord.”

“And your plans will be established”: This line is nearly the same as the second line of 4.26. “Plans” renders the same word as in 6.18 and 15.22. “Established” translates the same term used in 3.19 and 12.3. The sense in this verse is “cause to turn out well” or, as New Jerusalem Bible translates it, “and what you plan will be achieved.” Bible en français courant has “and you will carry out your plans”; one Pacific translation says “and your work will go ahead well.” See also Good News Translation.

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 .