Then the righteous man will stand with great confidence: For the opening word Then, Good News Translation has “On that day.” This reminds the reader that the context is the final judgment. It will be helpful to make this even clearer; for example, “On that day of judgment all who have pleased God…” or “On that day when God judges the world….” Good News Translation renders the righteous man as “someone righteous,” but this may be misleading. It seems to say that some particular righteous person is meant here. There are scholars who wonder if this is not the case, since there are similarities to the picture of the suffering servant in Isa 53. A connection has even been made with the Teacher of Righteousness in the Dead Sea Scrolls. We believe, however, that any and all of the righteous are meant. It is expressed as a singular, since we are dealing with the hypothetical case of the ungodly man oppressing a righteous man. Still, the best approach may be to express it in the plural, as in New Revised Standard Version: “Then the righteous will stand with great confidence.” Or we may translate “But all who have pleased God [or, the righteous] will stand with great confidence.”

In the presence of those who have afflicted him, and those who make light of his labors: Those are the ungodly who oppressed the righteous (2.19-20), but the righteous are now standing boldly, confronting those who caused their hard times.

Translators could render the whole verse as follows:

• At that time [or, On the Judgment Day] the righteous will stand boldly [or, with great confidence] to confront those who oppressed them, who cared so little about their sufferings.

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.