“The wise of heart will heed commandments”: “The wise of heart” is the opposite of the person in 6.32 who “lacks heart,” that is, someone who lacks good sense. Here the reference is to a person who is sensible or displays good sense in his thoughts and actions. In some languages such a person is called a person with “good thinking” or “a good head.” “Heed” translates a verb whose meaning in this context is to receive, accept, or pay attention to. Contemporary English Version says “listen and obey.” “Commandments” renders a word used in 2.1; 3.1; and 4.4, where it indicates the content of instruction or teaching given by the teacher of wisdom. In this verse it seems to be used more generally to refer to good instruction, advice, or counsel.

For many languages Good News Translation offers a good model for this line. In some languages it may be necessary to indicate in a general sense the source of this advice, that is, “accept good advice that people give you.”

“But a prating fool will come to ruin”: “A prating fool” is literally “a fool of lips,” an expression whose meaning seems to be a person who speaks foolishly or a foolish talker. Moffatt says “a silly chatterer.” Some languages have idioms for such people, such as “water mouth.” For “fool” refer to 1.7. The parallelism and contrast between the “wise of heart” and the “prating fool” is clear enough. However, the relationship between “heed commandments” and “come to ruin” is less obvious. The thought in the second line is apparently that instead of listening to good advice the foolish person talks and thus brings about his own ruin. Contemporary English Version renders “come to ruin” as “will bring you to ruin.” We may also say, for example, “will lose everything,” “will end up with nothing,” or “is headed for trouble.” We may translate the entire verse, for example, “If a person is wise, he will listen to good advice; if he is a foolish talker, he will ruin himself.”

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 .