The footnotes of Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation show this verse to be unclear in Hebrew. In fact some interpreters consider this to be the most obscure verse in the book of Proverbs. Toy lists twelve attempts to translate this verse and considers the text in too bad condition to permit a translation.

“Like an archer who wounds everybody”: The line appears to say literally “much produces [wounds] all.” The word rendered “archer” by Revised Standard Version may also mean “great man” or “boss” or “much.” Good News Translation takes it to mean “employer.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, which rates the Hebrew text as “C,” thinks that the text may be rendered in two ways: “Like an archer who wounds everyone, so is he who hires a fool and hires passers-by” or “There is a great one who is creator of all and who takes for his service a fool and the first passers-by.”

“Is he who hires a passing fool or drunkard”: This line is literally “and he who hires a fool and he who hires passers-by.” “Passers-by” refers to people who come and go in a public place. Note that Revised Standard Version “wounds everybody” is translated by Good News Translation “hurting everybody concerned,” a consequence of hiring “any fool that comes along.” Translators may follow the first recommended rendering of Hebrew Old Testament Text Project or that of Good News Translation. In any event, there is little certainty in any translation of this difficult verse.

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 .