“Be assured, an evil man will not go unpunished”: “Be assured” renders a Hebrew idiom “hand to hand,” perhaps a phrase resulting from the practice of striking hands together when concluding an agreement. Note Good News Translation “you can be sure.” “Evil man” renders the masculine singular form of the adjective “evil”. New Revised Standard Version “the wicked” avoids the exclusive sense of “man”. Note Good News Translation “evil people.” “Not . . . unpunished” renders a legal term denoting acquittal or being set free from guilt, presumably by the Lord as judge. The double negative must often be translated by a positive, for example, “will be punished.” We may also express this as a single negative, for example, “will not escape punishment.”

“But those who are righteous will be delivered”: “Righteous” refers to the upright, those who are good. “Delivered” renders the passive form of the Hebrew verb meaning to set free or enable to escape. In languages in which the agent of the action must be expressed we may say, for example, “But the Lord will deliver those who are upright” or “But the Lord will enable good people to escape unhurt.” Since this verse makes a clear contrast between the fate of the evil person and the righteous person, the sense of “delivered” may be expressed as the opposite of “not go unpunished”. A translation that follows this approach says, “Everybody should know that evil people will receive punishment, but straight people will not receive this punishment.”

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 .