“A righteous man knows the rights of the poor”: “Knows” in this context is not the possession of knowledge or being aware of something, but rather being concerned for, caring about, or being in sympathy with poor people. “The rights of the poor” refers to the legal rights or justice due to the poor. For comments on “the poor” see 10.15 and 22.9.

“A wicked man does not understand such knowledge”: This line is literally “but a wicked man does not understand knowledge.” This does not give an adequate meaning, and some interpreters make a change in the word for “knowledge” to say “but a wicked man does not recognize his [the poor man’s] claim.” However, in contrast with the previous line, we may take the word rendered “understand” to mean “be concerned with” or “pay attention to.” In this case we may say, for example, “but a wicked person pays no attention or is not concerned with this.” See Good News Translation.

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 .