Through such works thou hast taught thy people that the righteous man must be kind: Such works refers to God’s acts of merciful patience referred to in verse 18. This divine example is what teaches people to be kind. Better than Good News Translation “By the things you have done” would be “By the kind [or, merciful] things you have done.” The word translated kind means “friendly to humanity”; it was used of the spirit of Wisdom in 1.6 and 7.23 (Revised Standard Version “humane”). When this term is applied to a person, as here, kind is adequate, although “humane” (An American Translation, Winston) is also a good choice in English. An alternative model for these two lines is “By the kind [or, merciful] things you have done, you have taught your people that a good person must also be kind.”

And thou hast filled thy sons with good hope is literally “you made your sons good-hopeful.” Thy sons means the same as thy people in the first line. Good hope does not sound quite natural in English. Winston translates it “cheerful,” which is an option. For this line Good News Translation says “You have given your people abundant hope,” which sounds better. New American Bible solves the problem with “And you gave your sons good ground for hope,” which is not bad, but sounds a bit less positive. Whatever the translator uses here must be appropriate to introduce the next line. A more positive translation is “You have filled your people with optimism [or, great hope].”

Because thou givest repentance for sins: This means that God allows people the chance to repent. This is the basis for the good hope in the line above. A possible rendering for the last two lines is “You have filled your people with optimism [or, great hope] because you have let them repent [or, turn away from their sins].”

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.