For your dominion was given you from the Lord, and your sovereignty from the Most High: These two lines are strictly parallel and have the same meaning. Many translators will want to follow Good News Translation in combining them. If verse 2 is rendered as suggested above, we would begin a new sentence here without the connector For: “Your authority has been given to you by the Lord Most High” or “The Lord Most High gave your authority to you.” Most High refers to God’s awesome majesty [or, power], not to size or height (see also the comment at 5.15).

Who will search out your works and inquire into your plans: Search out your works means that God will study what these rulers have done and judge it; inquire into your plans means that God will do the same with what they are planning to do in the future. Translators may best express this as a separate sentence: “He will investigate what you have done and what you plan to do [or, your actions and your intentions].”

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.