When the nations in wicked agreement had been confounded: Good News Translation is wrong here; the reference here is to the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel (Gen 11.1-9). The verb translated had been confounded is used twice in the Greek text of that story. In wicked agreement probably refers to Gen 11.1. The connection with Abraham is not immediately apparent, other than that the story of Abraham begins later in Gen 11. There is, however, an ancient Jewish legend that Abraham was living at the time of Babel. At any rate, it is probably best to translate this line in such a way that it clearly refers to something that took place in time between Noah (verse 4) and Abraham: “After the people of the world, who had once united in wickedness, had been split up into confused nations…” or “The people of the world then became united in wickedness. So God split them up into confused nations. At that time….”

Wisdom also … recognized the righteous man and preserved him blameless before God: Wisdom recognized that Abraham was righteous, and gave him enough wisdom to remain innocent in God’s sight. So translators could say “Wisdom noticed a good man and gave him the wisdom to remain innocent in God’s sight.”

And kept him strong in the face of his compassion for his child: This refers to the aborted sacrifice of Isaac in Gen 22. Wisdom knew that Abraham would not want to kill his son, so she made him strong and determined enough to do it. Good News Translation provides a good model.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Wisdom of Solomon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2004. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.