A mighty wind will rise against them, and like a tempest it will winnow them away: Good News Translation combines mighty wind and tempest into one phrase, “Great windstorms.” Winnow refers to the action of grain farmers when they toss grain into the air so that the husks (chaff) will blow away. Good News Translation does not use the term, but conveys the meaning and something of the imagery with “will blow them away like straw.”

Lawlessness will lay waste the whole earth: Lawlessness is pictured as turning the earth into a desert, or at least a place without people. It would not be going too far to say “Lawlessness will bring ruin upon the whole earth,” “Lawlessness will turn the whole earth into a desert,” or even “People breaking the Law will turn….”

And evil-doing will overturn the thrones of rulers may be expressed as “and wrongdoing will cause kingdoms [or, governments] to fall.” This last line, dealing with the downfall of kings, ends the author’s discussion of the destinies of the righteous and the ungodly, and prepares the reader for the address to the kings of the world with which the first main division of the book will close (6.1; compare 1.1).

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.