“Like clouds and wind without rain”: Again the Hebrew lacks the comparison marker equivalent to “Like”, but this meaning is clearly intended. The feature shared by “clouds” and “wind” and the person in line 2 is their failure to produce what is expected; Contemporary English Version renders this line as “rain clouds that don’t bring rain.”

“Is a man who boasts of a gift he does not give”: “A gift he does not give” is literally “a gift of falseness.” We may translate, for example, “The person who brags about gifts he never gives is like clouds and wind that give no rain” or “If people promise to give something and don’t give it, they are like the clouds and wind that come but there isn’t any rain [with them].”

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 .