As in 16.9, the theme of this verse is that it is the Lord who directs or controls the course of a person’s life. The second line follows as a natural consequence from this understanding.

“A man’s steps are ordered by the Lord“: “A man’s steps” is the literal translation of the Hebrew, but the expression refers to the course of a person’s life (see 16.9). Since “man” means any person, not only a male, New Revised Standard Version has “our steps” and Revised English Bible “a person’s steps.” For “steps” Good News Translation uses “path,” while Contemporary English Version expresses both “A man’s steps” and “his way” in the next line as “what will happen to us.” There is no verb in this line in Hebrew, but simply “From the Lord a man’s steps.” “From the Lord” also occurs in 16.1. The sense is that the Lord is the one who brings about or controls what happens, so most translations use words like “directs” (Revised English Bible), “guides” (New Jerusalem Bible), or “decides” (Contemporary English Version). Some languages have idioms for the course of a person’s life; one translation, for example, has “The Lord has marked out the roads of life that each of us will follow.”

“How then can man understand his way?”: This is a rhetorical question, with the expected answer being “A person can’t know. . .” or “It is not possible for anyone to understand. . ..” The message for the reader may be “We should not even try to understand. . ..” Most versions in English keep a question form, and this may also be possible in other languages. If the question form is likely to be taken the wrong way, then one of the above statements may be used. “Man” has the sense of “a person” or “anyone”; or since there is a contrast here between what God can do and what people can do, it may also be rendered as “a human being” (Scott). “His way” is parallel to “A man’s steps” in the first line and has the same meaning. “Understand his way” may mean “understand the direction his own life is taking” (Good News Translation), or it may mean “know which way to take” (Scott). A translation that does not use a question form says “Nobody can work out which way his life will go”; note also Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “Nobody knows his own destiny.”

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 .