Good News Translation has the same problem again here as in the previous verse. It is not that no one has ever sailed across the sea in order to find Wisdom, but that no one has succeeded. No one has ever found Wisdom by looking for her overseas. Nor has anyone ever succeeded in buying Wisdom, not even with the finest gold.

Pure gold refers to the “finest gold,” that which has the fewest impurities. Compare Job 28.14-17.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• No one has ever sailed [a boat] across the sea [or, ocean] and succeeded in finding Wisdom. No one has ever been able to buy her [Wisdom], not even with pure gold.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.