The grammar of verses 2-3 is complex. Technically, verse 2 consists of two subordinate clauses and verse 3 is the main clause. It will prove very difficult to preserve this structure, and translators are urged not to try unless this will be a natural structure in their language. It will usually be much better to translate all these clauses as independent statements.
Because we were born by mere chance: Ungodly people do not give God credit for their own existence. Another way to express this clause is “We just happened to be born.” The connector Because should be omitted (see Good News Translation and our model below).
And hereafter we shall be as though we had never been: Ungodly people see no more purpose in their life than in their birth. So we may say “When we die, it will be as if we had never been born at all.”
Because the breath in our nostrils is smoke: You can see smoke, but whenever you do see it, it is already beginning to vanish. The breath we breathe is like smoke in that it is quickly gone. Good News Translation is good: “Our breath is no more than a puff of smoke.”
And reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our hearts: A spark kindled by the beating of our hearts is literally “a spark in the motion of our heart.” This is another idea taken from Stoic philosophy. The intent is to say that our reasoning, our thinking, our self-consciousness is just as fleeting and insubstantial as our breath. To ungodly people, this highest principle of human life is reduced to something mechanical. Good News Translation phrases this line so it is obviously parallel to the previous one, thus reinforcing the meaning. One possible rendering is “and thinking is like a spark from the beat of our hearts.”
An alternative model for this verse is:
• We just happened to be born. When we die, it will be as if we had never been born at all. Our breath is not more than a puff of smoke, and our thinking [or, reasoning] is like a spark from the beat of our hearts.
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.
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