But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God: This verse begins with the adversative But, because the author is contrasting the experience of righteous people with that of ungodly people discussed in the previous chapter. We could begin the verse as follows: “In contrast to the ungodly, God protects….” To be in the hand of God is a biblical idiom for being protected by God. Good News Translation translates this way, but here it is insufficient. Good News Translation could be understood as saying that living people are protected by God, but this is not the point. The point is that the souls of the righteous are under God’s eternal protection, that they live eternally with God. The righteous here are the righteous dead. To most readers, souls of the righteous, rather than “righteous people” (Good News Translation), would suggest this. The writer is thinking specifically of souls (that part of the person that lives on after death) as apart from bodies. In some languages this clause will have to be in the active voice; for example, “God will protect the souls of good people [or, those who have pleased him].” But if the notion of souls is difficult to translate in cultures where people may not understand whether a “good spirit” or a “bad spirit” is referred to, we may say, for example, “God will protect good people after they have died.”

And no torment will ever touch them: This is the torment that the ungodly have been intending to inflict on the righteous (2.19). The idea is that even though ungodly people carry out their plans to torment the righteous and bring them to a shameful death, this does not disprove the belief of the righteous that they are protected by God (2.16), since after death, in the hand of God, they are beyond the reach of any evil intentions.

Alternative models for this verse are:

• But [or, In contrast to the ungodly] the souls of those who lived righteous lives will never be tormented [or, have torment]. They are safe in the hands of God [or, under God’s protection].

• But those who lived righteous lives are where no one can torment them after they have died; they are safe in the hands of God.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Wisdom of Solomon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2004. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.