This verse works with the image of a productive tree, with roots and with fruit on the branches (compare Amos 2.9). The picture contrasts with the lament of the eunuch in Isa 56.3: “I am a dry tree.” The childless woman or man has had no “fruit,” in the biblical idiom, but righteous deeds can be considered and valued as “fruit.”

For the fruit of good labors is renowned: Translators do not need the connector For here. The Greek grammar for fruit of good labors is ambiguous. Does it mean (1) that good labors bear fruit (“Honest deeds are like a tree that bears marvelous fruit” [Good News Translation]), or (2) that the fruit consists of good labors (“good deeds … they are like fruit on a vine” [Contemporary English Version])? The parallel in the next line (where wisdom is compared to a root) suggests that the second option is to be preferred (so that good deeds do not produce fruit, but they are compared to choice fruit).

And the root of understanding does not fail: A metaphor is used here. The root here is understanding. Does not fail refers to the ability of living roots of some trees to put up new growth even when the tree has been cut down. A person who shows wisdom by being faithful to God will of course die one day, but his wisdom, like his good deeds, has a life of its own that continues after the person’s death, just as children live on after the parents are gone. Compare 4.1.

An alternative model for this verse is:

• Good deeds are like a tree that bears marvelous fruit. Wisdom is like a root that is alive and sends up new shoots.

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.