“Endowing with wealth those who love me” is literally “causing those who love me to inherit wealth” or “giving wealth as an inheritance to those who love me.” “Wealth”, used only here in the Old Testament as a noun, refers to a great amount of accumulated money or financial fortune. In some translations this line is expressed as “I make those who love me rich people.”
“And filling their treasuries”: “Treasuries” translates the plural of a word meaning “storehouse,” a building used for storing, keeping, or safeguarding valuable materials of all kinds. We may translate, for example, “I [will] fill their houses with valuables” or “I fill their storehouses full of precious things.”
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 .
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 8:21:
Kupsabiny: “I give those people who love me wealth to fill their granaries/storerooms.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “I give wealth and prosperity to those who love me, and I fill their treasuries.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “The one who loves me I will-give wealth; I will-fill their place-where-ones-keep wealth.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “because I cause-to-be-rich all who love me and I fill the-place-where- they -are-storing their possessions.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.
Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:
21a bestowing wealthon those who love me
21b and makingtheirtreasuries full.
8:21a–b
bestowing wealth…making their treasuries full: Although the benefits that Wisdom gives are better than gold and silver (8:19), they do include material wealth.
bestowing wealth: The word bestowing means to give something to someone as a permanent possession. This possession can be passed on as an inheritance. For example:
to give an inheritance to those who love me (God’s Word)
In Hebrew, the word wealth is a different word from either the words “riches” or “wealth” used in 8:18. It probably refers to land/property rather than money or valuable objects. If possible, use a word that can refer to various kinds of inherited wealth.
treasuries: The word treasuries refers to buildings used for storing valuable materials. Another way to translate it is:
filling their houses with treasures (Good News Translation)
Since the two terms “wealth” and “treasuries” are parallel to each other, they probably refer in general to all types of wealth, both property and otherwise.
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