But a castoff piece from among them, useful for nothing: This castoff piece is not a piece left over from burning—after all, any wood will burn—but just another piece of scrap. An alternative model for this line is “But from the leftover wood he takes one piece that isn’t good for anything.”

A stick crooked and full of knots: A “knot” is a hard, dark piece of wood where a limb grew from the tree. Knots are generally too hard to carve.

He takes and carves with care in his leisure, and shapes it with skill gained in idleness: These two lines are similar in meaning, and Good News Translation partially combines the two with “carefully carve” (carves, shapes), but blends “using spare moments” (in idleness) into the next line. Notice, however, that both of these lines contain a contrast between care (care, skill) and carelessness (leisure, idleness). This is probably the author’s intentional sarcastic sneer at the man’s activity: he casually turns out a useful piece from good wood, but then concentrates all his energy on poor wood in order to produce something worthless. If this irony can be conveyed in translation, whether the two lines are combined or not, it should be. The first four lines may be rendered “But he will take another scrap of wood, too crooked and knotty to be of any use, and use all his spare time laboring over it.”

The Revised Standard Version footnote on the fourth line refers to a form of the text in some manuscripts which is preferred by some, but we recommend against it. It probably originated with a scribe who did not understand the irony. We think a footnote is not necessary.

He forms it like the image of a man: The image the author has in mind is probably a “crude image” (Good News Translation), but his actual language does not say this. Translators may say simply “He shapes [or, carves] it to look like a person.”

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Wisdom of Solomon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2004. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.