For thou hast power over life and death; thou dost lead men down to the gates of Hades and back again: This means, as Good News Translation states, that God can allow a person to come close to death, but then restore him to health. The connector For introduces this verse as the reason for what happens in the previous verse, so it may also be rendered as “Because.” Hades is the world of the dead (see 1.14). For the figure gates of Hades, compare Job 38.17; Isa 38.10. Some translators may be able to retain this figure with something like “You can take a person right down to the entrance to the place of the dead [or, the place where dead people are/stay] and then bring that person back again.” But in many languages the figure will be confusing. So Good News Translation “brink of death” is possible. In other languages we may say “You have the power to almost take away someone’s life and then bring that person back.”

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.