This verse consists of a series of six questions. The first four are rhetorical questions similar to those found in Job chapter 38. The meaning intended is probably that since no human being can do the things mentioned, then no human being can speak with any authority about what God does.
“Who has ascended to heaven and come down?”: This and the next three questions all begin with “Who. . .?” The questions are rhetorical and the expected answer is “no one,” “no human person.” Another way of expressing the questions in English is “Has anyone. . .?” (Contemporary English Version). The plain sense of the argument is “No one has ever. . .,” and it is possible to translate this way, if necessary; but statements like this may not have the same force as the questions. “Ascended to heaven and come down” probably means “gone up to where God lives [to find out what he is like] and then returned to earth.” One Pacific translation expresses this as “Is there anyone who has gone up to heaven, and then come down again and told about what he saw?”
“Who has gathered the wind in his fists?”: The sense of this line is clear, but the Revised Standard Version rendering uses language that is not very appropriate in English. The question is about a person trying to “gather”, or more naturally to “catch hold of,” “the wind”. The Hebrew term translated “fists” is more accurately “hollow of the hand” (New Revised Standard Version and others); in this context, however, the more general “hands” is more natural. Good News Translation, for instance, translates “Have any ever caught the wind in their hands?” Some other translations say “Who has ever held the wind in his hands?” Contemporary English Version uses a different verb that means to catch with the hands: “Has anyone grabbed hold of the wind?”
“Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?”: “Wrapped up . . . in a garment” gives a picture of someone folding a piece of clothing around an object. “A garment” is rendered “his cloak” by a number of versions. It is not really clear what “the waters” refers to, although many English versions translate the Hebrew term literally. According to Toy, “The garment is the clouds (Job 26.8)”; this understanding leads some to translate the question as “Who has put water in the clouds, like a person wrapping something in a cloth?” Contemporary English Version understands “the waters” to refer to the sea: “Has anyone wrapped up the sea. . .?” Good News Translation takes the term as meaning “water,” with this question being joined to the previous one, and talking about trying to do something impossible with water: “Or wrapped up water in a piece of cloth?”
“Who has established all the ends of the earth?”: The expression “the ends of the earth” probably means the extreme limits of the earth, that is, where the earth (thought of as having a round flat shape) reaches to. Revised English Bible renders the question “Who has fixed all the boundaries of the earth?” (see also Good News Translation).
“What is his name, and what is his son’s name? Surely you know!”: Two further rhetorical questions follow the “Who?” questions. To “know” a person’s “name” was the key to knowing the person. It was the proof that the person, whether human or divine, was a real person; see, for example, Gen 32.29 and Exo 3.13. The demand for names puts further emphasis on the point of the four “Who?” questions, since the speaker expects the answer “no one” to those questions. “Surely you know” is a sarcastic way of saying, “you don’t know anybody who can do those things.” The word translated “Surely” may also mean “if”; so New International Version, for example, renders these words as “Tell me if you know!” Good News Translation takes these words with the first of the questions: “Who are they, if you know?” This last part of the verse can be translated as a statement or request, rather than as a question; one translation, for example, says: “If you know a person who can do all this, tell me his name with the names of his children, so that I can know.”
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 .