For whether he was a farmer or a shepherd or a workman who toiled in the wilderness: The Good News Translation device of naming the occupations in a series (“Farmers, shepherds, and laborers”) is an effective beginning. The connector For is not necessary. The Greek does not exactly say “countryside” (Good News Translation), but “desert.” That is a strange place for anyone to be toiling, but the force of the noun could be that the person is working alone. For these lines we would prefer to say “Farmers, shepherds [or, people who looked after sheep], and people doing hard work in isolated areas.”

He was seized, and endured the same inescapable fate may be rendered “none could escape.”

For with one chain of darkness they all were bound: Good News Translation interprets chain of darkness as “invisible chain.” We are not so sure, and would prefer to say “The darkness bound them all, as if they were in chains [or, in prison].”

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.