“He who is estranged seeks pretexts”: As the Revised Standard Version footnote shows, “estranged” renders the Hebrew for “separated,” and “pretexts” translates the Greek and Vulgate texts where the Hebrew has “desire.” A person who is “estranged” or “separated” is likely to be someone who has been put out of his community or has voluntarily withdrawn from it. Toy takes the subject of this line to refer to a person who keeps himself separated or holds himself aloof from his friends or from society. Scott calls him “an unsociable man.” The Hebrew of “seeks pretexts” is very doubtful and Hebrew Old Testament Text Project rates it as “C.” However, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project interprets the Hebrew term “desire” to refer to greed or pleasure, and recommends translating the line “A man who keeps to himself seeks his own pleasure.” This thought is followed closely by Good News Translation. Bible en français courant has “The one who looks only to his own interest isolates himself from others.” We may also translate, for example, “A person who thinks only of himself does not make many friends.”

“To break out against all sound judgment”: Revised Standard Version makes the two lines into one clause by the words “to break out”. The Hebrew has “he breaks out.” The verb rendered “break out” is the same as used in 17.14, where Revised Standard Version translates “the quarrel breaks out”; however, here the sense is to “bare the teeth at” (“snarling at” in New Living Translation), “defy” (New International Version), or “have contempt for.” The word rendered “sound judgment” was first used in 2.7, where Revised Standard Version translated it “sound wisdom.” The thought expressed in this line is that the unsociable person quarrels or disagrees with people of good judgment or good sense. Revised English Bible says “he quarrels with every sound policy.” New Revised Standard Version translates the full saying: “The one who lives alone is self-indulgent, showing contempt for all who have sound judgment.”

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 .