This saying contrasts how wise people treat their things of value with what foolish people do. There are matching and contrasting terms in each of the two lines, but the structure is not really parallel.

“Precious treasure remains in a wise man’s dwelling”: As the footnotes in Revised Standard Version and New Revised Standard Version show, the Hebrew of this line is “Desirable treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise.” The Septuagint omits “and oil” and substitutes “remains”, which may seem to give a better contrast with “devours” in the next line. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends “and oil” (but with a “C” rating), and this is followed by some versions, such as New International Version and New Jerusalem Bible. Others express the sense of “oil” as “luxury” (Good News Translation, New Living Translation), or they combine it with “Precious treasure” and translate “fine and costly treasures” (Revised English Bible). We recommend that translators follow the Hebrew text, using one of these approaches. “Treasure”, as in verse 6, has the sense of “what is stored up” (because it is valuable), and “Precious” means “what is desired.” Most versions take “Precious treasure” to mean all kinds of valuables: “The wise has valuables and oil at home” (New Jerusalem Bible). Some, however, take it to refer particularly to choice food that is stored up; New International Version, for instance, has “In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil.”

“But a foolish man devours it”: What the “foolish man” (New Revised Standard Version and others “fool”) does contrasts with what the “wise man” does. “Devours” is the verb meaning “swallows up,” which may be taken literally if the reference in the previous line is to food; if the first line refers to valuable things in general, “devours” is figurative and has the sense of “consumes,” “uses up,” or “wastes” (Contemporary English Version). “It” refers back to “treasure” in the previous line, but it must mean the valuables the fool has in his house, not the wise person’s things; so New International Version says “devours all he has,” and New Jerusalem Bible “runs through both [valuables and oil].”

For some translators a literal type of translation of the verse may not indicate the real contrast made in this saying, namely, the contrast between keeping a store of valuables and/or food and using up everything as soon as it comes in. If this is the case, we may need to consider a translation like Contemporary English Version “Be sensible and store up . . . don’t waste. . .” or (for the second line) Good News Translation “but stupid people spend their money as fast as they get it.”

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 .