Wisdom is radiant and unfading: Good News Translation has a good approach with “Wisdom shines bright and never grows dim.” In languages where translators will have difficulty treating Wisdom as a person, we suggest that a footnote be included at the beginning of this chapter explaining that the author is personifying Wisdom as a woman. Perhaps translators may wish to capitalize Wisdom or “Understanding” in this first verse and say something like “Wisdom may be compared to a woman whose radiant beauty never fades.” Some may have to use an extended phrase for Wisdom for example, “Thinking and acting as God would have us do is like a woman whose radiant…”.

And she is easily discerned by those who love her, and is found by those who seek her: To “discern” means to become aware of something, often against a distracting background, as for instance, when a person becomes aware of a bird hidden in the leaves of a tree. The author is speaking of a person who wants wisdom, and who recognizes how it must be obtained. That person has found wisdom. The two verbs discerned and found have subtly different meanings, but they can be combined, as Good News Translation has done with “find.”

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.