“A righteous man turns away from evil”: This line, as the Revised Standard Version footnote shows, is uncertain. Many attempts have been made to change the Hebrew or to make sense of it as it stands. None of these has resulted in an interpretation that adequately parallels or contrasts with line 2. A literal translation of the line seems to say “A righteous man seeks out [or, spies out] his neighbor.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project rates the text as “B” and gives two interpretations: (1) “May the righteous explore his companion” and (2) “The righteous is better off than his neighbor.” The first is unclear and the second does not suggest what being “better off than” may mean. Good News Translation has modified the Hebrew to get its rendering but does not provide a footnote. Contemporary English Version translates the whole with “You are better off to do right than to lose your way by doing wrong.” Its footnote says “One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 26.”

“But the way of the wicked leads them astray”: This line is not in doubt, but it is not clear how anything in it parallels or contrasts with line 1. “The way of the wicked” was first used in 4.19, and it has the same meaning here, that is, the lifestyle, or the manner in which the wicked live. “Leads them astray” renders a form of a verb meaning to cause to wander about or to mislead.

If we follow the second recommendation of Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, the translation can be expressed, for example, “The good person is more fortunate than his neighbor, but the bad person is misled by the way he lives.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .