“Many women have done excellently”: This verse gives the actual words of praise addressed by the husband to his wife. If the end of the previous verse does not indicate this, something like “He says,” should be included here. The term translated “excellently” is the same word as “good” used at the beginning of this poem in verse 10. If the verb “done” is retained, the expression may be rendered as something like “do noble things” (New International Version) or “have done admirable things” (New Jerusalem Bible); other ways of expressing it are “have proved their worth” (Scott) and “are good wives” (Good News Translation).

“But you surpass them all”: In Hebrew the separate pronoun “you” is used for emphasis at the beginning of the line. The word “but” has something of the same effect in English. “Surpass” is a form of the verb “go up” or “be high,” and in this context means to “be superior” or “be better than.” Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version express this very simply and naturally as “you are the best (of them all).” In other languages there are often idioms such as “You beat them all” or “You are the number one among them all.”

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 .