For as they live among his works they keep searching: Instead of the connector For, the adversative “But” is better in this context (see the model below). Good News Translation “Surrounded by” is a literal rendering of the participle found in the Greek text. It may be taken in the sense of time, as in Revised Standard Version as they live … or “While they are surrounded…”; but more likely it should be understood as a concessive clause: “Even though they are surrounded….” The word for searching indicates careful searching. For this line we might say “Even though they are surrounded by things God has made, they keep on searching” or “Things that God has made are all around them, but still they keep on searching.”

And they trust in what they see, because the things that are seen are beautiful: The author would not disagree with what Good News Translation has here, but it is not what he said. The problem for all translators here is the interpretation of the verb translated trust in. New American Bible translates “are distracted by,” and we think this is right. The word means “persuade,” but in this case it refers to being persuaded (it is passive) in a bad sense, that is, misled. For this line we suggest something like “and the things they see [really] are beautiful, and they are misled [or, this misleads them].”

It is possible to reverse the lines of this verse and say:

• But they are misled, because the things they see [really] are beautiful. And so they go on searching even though they are surrounded by the things God has made.

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.