“It is the glory of God to conceal things”: “Glory” refers to “honor” or “greatness.” The same Hebrew term is rendered “honor” in 3.16, 35. To “conceal” or hide “things” means to act in mysterious ways. The same thought is expressed in Deut 29.29; Job 11.7; 26.14. “Things” may be physical or spiritual. Note that Good News Translation expresses “glory” as a verb: “We honor God. . ..” We may say, for example, “We honor God because he does things in a mysterious way” or “We honor God because he hides things from our eyes.”

“But the glory of kings is to search things out”: “The glory of kings” is parallel to “the glory of God” in line 1. “Search things out” is parallel and contrasts with “conceals things” in line 1. There are two ways of understanding “search things out”. This may mean that kings “examine things” or that “they bring things to light,” that is, they explain, reveal, or show how things are. The “things” the kings reveal are not necessarily the things that God conceals. However, some interpreters understand this line in that way. We may translate this saying, for example, “People honor God because he acts mysteriously, and they honor their king because he makes matters clear.”

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 .