“The words of Lemuel, king of Massa”: For a discussion of the term or name “Massa”, see 30.1. The various English translations follow the same approach here as they do for that previous occurrence of the Hebrew word massaʾ. The Handbook again recommends translating the Hebrew word, following one of the versions which does this, rather than transliterating it as a proper name.

“Which his mother taught him”: The verb “taught” has the sense of “discipline” or “set in the right way” (Toy). The same verb is used of a father disciplining his son in 19.18 and 29.17. Most English translations, however, follow Revised Standard Version with “taught” in this context.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .