“Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty”: This line is similar to 16.18a. See there for comments. “Destruction” renders a word meaning “breaking,” “crushing,” “shattering.” The reference is to any experience that threatens to destroy or ruin people, physically or otherwise. To say that “a man’s heart is haughty”, as in 16.18b, means the person is “proud,” “disdainful,” “arrogant.” This line may be taken as a warning not to be proud so as not to be ruined; see the Contemporary English Version rendering below.

“But humility goes before honor”: This line is identical to 15.33b. See there for comments. “Goes before” is often expressed as “leads to.” For the whole verse Contemporary English Version has “Pride leads to destruction; humility leads to honor.” In some languages this may be adjusted to say, for example, “If you are proud you will be destroyed; if you are humble people will show you respect.”

In some languages it may be better to change the order of the lines so that the positive statement comes before the negative. One translation that takes this approach says, “A person must make his thinking go down, so that people will honor him. A person who boasts and is proud is on the way to destruction.” See Good News Translation.

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 .