In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died: In the eyes … is a biblical idiom, meaning “in the thinking of….” We are talking here about righteous people who have, in fact, died; but the author is saying that though they suffered earthly death, they are still alive. Good News Translation is not exactly wrong, but its wording loses the connection with the larger context. Contemporary English Version is better with “Only in the minds of the foolish….” The foolish here are the ungodly who plotted against the righteous in 2.10-20. So we may translate “Foolish people mistakenly thought that those good people died.”

And their departure was thought to be an affliction, and their going from us to be their destruction: These two lines have the same meaning, so they may be combined; for example, “They considered their [the righteous/good people’s] death a disaster [or, misfortune].”

But they are at peace: Translators should be sure that the subject here is clear; Good News Translation has spelled out the pronoun they: “the righteous are at peace.”

An alternative translation model for verses 2-3 is:

• Foolish people mistakenly thought that when those righteous [or, good] people died their death was a disaster [or, misfortune]. They considered that these righteous people are dead and gone forever. But in fact, they are in peace.

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.