8:31
Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:
31a
I was rejoicing in His whole world,
31b
delighting together in the sons of men.
8:31a
I was rejoicing in His whole world: In Hebrew, this phrase is literally “in the world of his earth.” There are two ways to interpret this repetition of synonyms:
(1) It means “his whole world.” For example:
at play everywhere on his earth (New Jerusalem Bible)
(2) It means the inhabited part of his world. For example:
his inhabited world (New Revised Standard Version)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), along with most versions and scholars. The previous verses describe Wisdom being present at the creation of oceans, mountains, and sky. There is nothing to suggest that Wisdom rejoiced only in the inhabited part of the earth.
The Good News Translation and the Contemporary English Version both leave implied the emphasis of whole world, and the Good News Translation also omits “his.” It has “happy with the world.” It is recommended that you retain the emphasis and the pronoun “his” if possible. If it is unnatural in your language to say “his entire world,” another way to express the meaning is:
the entire world that he created
-or-
everything that he created
8:31b
delighting together in the sons of men: Other ways to translate this phrase are:
and pleased with the human race (Good News Translation)
-or-
and delighted with all its people (New Century Version)
General Comment on 8:30b–c and 8:31a–b
The words “delight” and “rejoicing” in 8:30 are here reversed to “rejoicing” and “delighting,” forming a chiasm to complete this paragraph. In some languages, it will not be possible to retain the chiasm due to a lack of synonyms. However, it may be possible to emphasize the idea of rejoicing/delighting by saying something like:
Indeed, I was very happy at the whole world that he created, including people.
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