May God grant that I speak with judgment: May God grant expresses a prayer, although addressed to the reader rather than directly to God. Good News Translation translates “I pray to God,” which is a good alternative. Speak in this case actually refers to writing; Solomon is referring to what he writes in this book. The word judgment is a problem. It refers to knowledge and discernment rather than to anything in the legal sense, but it is not clear whether the knowledge and discernment in question are Solomon’s or God’s. Good News Translation (also Winston, New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible) takes it to refer to God. Others take it to be Solomon’s wish that he himself may express himself intelligently. We believe this to be the intent; effective use of words was always thought to be one of the marks of a wise person.

And have thoughts worthy of what I have received: Good News Translation reverses the order of this line and the previous one, so as to place thinking before speaking. The meaning of the two lines is “I pray that God will let my ideas be worthy of what I have learned, and my expression of them [or, my words] be effective” or “I pray that God…, and that I may express effectively [or, intelligently] what I have learned.”

For he is the guide even of wisdom and the corrector of the wise: The connector for should be kept since these two lines explain why he prayed to God (see the model below). Although Solomon is speaking of the wise (“wise people”) in the third person, we suggest that this term be translated in the first person, since in the next verse “we” seems to refer to the wise, not to all humanity. An improvement on Good News Translation might be “God shows Wisdom the way [or, right path], and when we who are wise are wrong, he can correct us.” The word translated corrector can also be rendered “director,” and some prefer this meaning. For the last line Vílchez translates “and marks out the road for the wise.” New American Bible simply has “and the director of the wise.” There is no way to decide this with confidence, and translators may choose whichever sense they prefer.

An alternative translation model for the whole verse is:

• I pray that God will let my ideas be worthy of what I have learned, and that I may express these ideas effectively [or, intelligently]. For God shows Wisdom the way [or, right path], and when we who are wise are wrong, he can correct us.

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.