“These also are sayings of the wise”: This is the title for the collection of sayings that follow in the rest of chapter 24. Good News Translation gives a different way of expressing it.

“Partiality in judging is not good”: This line is the beginning of the first saying in the collection and states its theme. “Partiality” gives the sense of the Hebrew idiom “to have regard for faces”; it means to give a decision or to act on the basis of who a person is rather than on the basis of his or her guilt or innocence (see 18.5). “In judging” or “in dispensing justice” (Revised English Bible) shows that the saying refers to the legal system or the process of law; note the Good News Translation rendering “It is wrong for judges to be prejudiced.” Contemporary English Version expresses the statement in a positive way rather than a negative way: “When you judge, you must be fair.”

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 .