“The wise man’s path leads upward to life”: “The wise man’s path” may often be restated as “the path of the wise” or “the way wise people live.” “Leads upward to life” is literally “to upward to the prudent,” since there is no verb in the Hebrew. The presence of “upward” here and “Sheol” “beneath” in the next line has suggested to some interpreters that this saying refers to eternal life in heaven and eternal punishment in hell. Accordingly, King James Version translates “The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.” However, as Whybray says, “such a belief is extremely improbable here in view of its absence otherwise from Proverbs.” It is significant that the words “upward” and “beneath” are not represented in the Septuagint. Throughout Proverbs “Sheol” represents physical death, and, in contrast to “Sheol”, “life” here represents physical life. See, for example, 13.14 and 14.27.

To express this line requires adjustments in some languages; for example, if we assume that it refers to a long and happy life, we may say “The wise person follows the path that leads to a long life” or “The wise walk the path that gives them a long life.”

“That he may avoid Sheol beneath”: “He” refers to “the wise man” in the first line. Since “Sheol” refers to physical death, we may translate, for example, “and avoid the path that leads to death” or “and so do not take the road that goes down to death.”

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 .