“The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil”: Some interpreters regard this line as a later addition, possibly made by a copyist. The verse has three lines rather than the usual two and it appears to interrupt the flow of Wisdom’s speech. Nevertheless, it is in the Hebrew Bible as we have it, and Hebrew Old Testament Text Project rates the text here as “A.” “Fear of the Lord” is the same as in 1.7. “Hatred” renders the same word as in 1.22. The sense of this line is “The way to honor the Lord is to hate things that are evil” or “If you wish to respect the Lord, you must hate what is evil.”

“Pride and arrogance and the way of evil”: “Pride” is having an excessively high opinion of yourself. “Arrogance” is very close in meaning to “Pride” and refers to an attitude of superiority held by a person who thinks he or she is superior to others. “The way of evil” means wicked ways, evil conduct or behavior.

“And perverted speech I hate”: “Perverted speech” is literally “a perverted mouth.” See 2.12 for comments. Revised Standard Version, like the Hebrew sentence, places the verb “hate” at the end of the third line. A more natural translation of this verse is “If you honor the Lord, you will hate evil. I hate pride, arrogance, evil ways, and deceitful talk.”

Some languages translate this verse more idiomatically; for example, “Honor the Lord and hate evil ways. Things that are disgusting to me are people who carry their noses in the air and look down on others as well as those who behave badly and talk with two tongues.”

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 .