But children of adulterers will not come to maturity, and the offspring of an unlawful union will perish: See the comment on “sinful union” at verse 13 above. The writer very likely intends this to refer not only to adulterers, but also to Jews who have married Gentiles. The Bible often uses adultery as a metaphor for unfaithfulness to Israel’s God; compare Isa 57.3; Jer 9.2; Ezek 23.37; Hos 2. Considering this, it is possible that mixed marriages are what the writer is concerned with, and not literal adultery. But it would be unwise in translation to collapse adulterers and an unlawful union into one expression. Part of the problem is that this verse appears to contradict the next verse. Here it says that such children “will die an early death” (Good News Translation), but verse 17 talks of their “old age.” The solution is in the translation of the verb in the first line of this verse. It does not necessarily mean “die an early death” or not come to maturity. It can mean only “never amount to anything.” Offspring may have here the same meaning as in verse 13, so that the author means that the family line descended from an unlawful marriage will be short, not that the children’s lives will be short. Compare Sir 40.15; 41.5-6. New English Bible translates in such a way as to continue the metaphor of verse 15: “But the children of adultery are like fruit that never ripens; they have sprung from a lawless union, and will come to nothing.” This is certainly appealing, but the Greek text does not continue the metaphor. We can suggest something like this:

• But children born of adultery will never amount to anything; an unlawful marriage will have few descendants.

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.