«Open your mouth, judge righteously»: «Open your mouth» is the same as in the previous verse. «Judge righteously» is literally “judge righteousness” or “give a right judgment.” Having in mind the responsibility of a king to give decisions or verdicts in cases before him, the following are appropriate renderings in this context: “pronounce an upright verdict” (New Jerusalem Bible), “pronounce just sentence” (Revised English Bible), “See justice done” (Scott), and “be a righteous judge” (Good News Translation).

«Maintain the rights of the poor and needy»: «Maintain the rights» is the verb form of the noun “rights of” in the previous verse. Here it means something like “give judgement for” (Revised English Bible), “defend [in a legal sense]” (New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version), or “give justice to” (Contemporary English Version). For «the poor» see 14.21; for «needy» see 14.31.

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 .