This verse describes the attitude of the third group of people, whose constant sin is pride.

“There are those—how lofty are their eyes, how high their eyelids lift!”: “How . . . how” translates the Hebrew word “what?” which leads to the two expressions describing this group of people. In this context it expresses intensity; so New International Version renders the first description “whose eyes are ever so haughty” (Scott “ever so proud”). The two expressions literally say that “their eyes” are “lofty” and “their eyelids lift high”; but these words in English do not really express the important element of the meaning in Hebrew, which is that these people are proud or arrogant and look down on others. Translations in English which better express the meaning of what the eyes do are “a breed haughty of eye, with disdain in every glance” (New Jerusalem Bible) and “whose eyes are ever so haughty, whose glances are so disdainful” (New International Version); the terms “haughty” and “disdain[ful]” both carry the sense of looking down on other people. Refer to the discussion in 6.17 on “haughty eyes,” which is almost identical in Hebrew to “lofty are their eyes”.

For some languages, however, it will be better to avoid the description of the eyes altogether in this verse and simply to render the element of pride or arrogance which they express. Good News Translation does this with “There are people who think they are so good—oh, how good they think they are!” A typical translation in a Pacific language says “Some people think they are so very good, and other people are worth nothing.”

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 .