This verse contrasts the person who fails to find Wisdom with the fortunate person in verse 35.

“But he who misses me injures himself”: “Misses” renders a verb meaning to “miss the mark [or, the way]” and so to “go wrong,” “stray away,” or “sin.” “Injures” translates a verb meaning to do physical or moral violence to someone. We may say, for example, “harms” or “hurts himself.” If “you” is used, we may say, for example, “But if you don’t find me, you harm only yourself.”

“All who hate me love death”: “Hate” is as in 1.22, 29; 5.12. We may also say, for example, “If you hate me, you love death,” or as Contemporary English Version says, “. . . you are in love with death.” “Love death” carries the image of injury in the first line to a more intensive poetic level. It has the sense of “being on the path that leads to death” or “headed toward the grave.”

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 .