But I perceived that I would not possess wisdom unless God gave her to me: Here Solomon says that being sound of body and soul does not necessarily imply that one is wise. If he ever became wise, it would have to be because God saw fit to make him so. Good News Translation provides a good model; but we may also say “… that I could never become wise unless God gave me Wisdom.”

And it was a mark of insight to know whose gift she was: In this parenthetical remark Solomon congratulates himself for having enough insight, even as a youth, to know that Wisdom was a gift from God. Again, Good News Translation can be used as a model.

So I appealed to the Lord and besought him, and with my whole heart I said: The repeated terms for prayer here (I appealed to the Lord, besought him, and with my whole heart I said) are a way of indicating intense, sincere prayer. Since chapter 9, which follows immediately, gives the words of the prayer, some smooth way must be found of introducing the prayer. Good News Translation simply ends the sentence with a colon. New English Bible is perhaps better: “So I pleaded with the Lord, and from the depths of my heart I prayed to him in these words:….” However, since this is the final verse of chapter 8, it will be better to end the sentence here and connect the first verse of chapter 9 to it in some way; for example:

• … and from the depths of my heart I prayed to him to give me Wisdom.
I prayed, “God of my ancestors…” [or, As I prayed for Wisdom, I said, “God of…”].

However, the way the connection between 8.21 and 9.1 is set out will also be influenced by the way the text as a whole is divided. Some versions such as Good News Translation and New Jerusalem Bible have a section heading at the beginning of chapter 9; others like New English Bible have only a new paragraph at this point.

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.