“Open your mouth, judge righteously”: “Open your mouth” is the same as in the previous verse. “Judge righteously” is literally “judge righteousness” or “give a right judgment.” Having in mind the responsibility of a king to give decisions or verdicts in cases before him, the following are appropriate renderings in this context: “pronounce an upright verdict” (New Jerusalem Bible), “pronounce just sentence” (Revised English Bible), “See justice done” (Scott), and “be a righteous judge” (Good News Translation).

“Maintain the rights of the poor and needy”: “Maintain the rights” is the verb form of the noun “rights of” in the previous verse. Here it means something like “give judgement for” (Revised English Bible), “defend [in a legal sense]” (New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version), or “give justice to” (Contemporary English Version). For “the poor” see 14.21; for “needy” see 14.31.

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 .