“This is the man whom we once held in derision and made a byword of reproach—we fools!: The quotation that begins here will end with verse 13. Those who are using the plural to refer to the righteous must be careful to do so here. Thus adjusted, Good News Translation could read “These are the people we used to make fun of! We thought they were a joke! What fools we were!” Or we may restructure as follows: “We were such fools to make fun of these people and sneer at them.”

We thought that his life was madness and that his end was without honor: The ungodly remember how they thought that devout people were peculiar to live so differently; see 2.15-16. They thought that those who were so careful to live according to the Law died a disgraceful death; see 2.20. Now they realize how wrong they were. This differs from the interpretation of Good News Translation. We suggest the following alternative model: “We thought they were crazy [or, mad] to live the way they did; we thought they had died in disgrace.”

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.