Verse 10 states the consequence of verse 9 and should be clearly introduced to show this.

“Then your barns will be filled with plenty”: “Barns” renders a word referring to places where grain crops are stored. In many areas there are small mud or stone structures of various shapes for storing dry crops. In areas where there are no crops grown that are stored for eating or for supplying seed, a descriptive term or expression will often be required, for example, “store place,” “shed for keeping grain,” or “place for hiding food.” If the passive construction cannot be used, we may need to say, for example, “Then you will have much food in your store place” or “Food will fill up your storehouses.”

“Plenty” translates a term that is normally used in a very general sense. Therefore, interpreters often change the word slightly to get “wheat,” as does the Septuagint in this case. Some translations say “corn” in the British English sense of cereals in general. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project says the word translated “plenty” can mean both “fullness” and “corn/wheat.” Good News Translation uses the more general “grain,” which refers to the seeds of any cereal grass such as wheat or oats.

“And your vats will be bursting with wine”: “Vats” refers to large containers, sometimes cisterns carved out of stone, tubs, or wooden vessels for holding the juice of grapes as it ferments into wine. In Matt 9.17 wine is stored in skins. The word rendered “vats” may also refer to the wine press. The picture presented in this line is of wine vats or presses running over because they cannot contain the abundance of wine. “Wine” translates a word that refers to new wine, that is, grape juice in the early stages of fermentation. The wine crop is mentioned along with olive oil and grain as one of the major crops of the land of Canaan (Deut 7.13; Neh 5.11). The abundance of grain and wine is a symbol of prosperity throughout the Old Testament.

In the translation of verse 10, particularly where grapes are not grown and wine making is unknown, it may be necessary to supply the name of another fermented drink or use a borrowed word and explain the significance of wine making in a note.

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 .