“She looks well to the ways of her household”: The Revised Standard Version rendering is not very clear in English. “She looks well to . . .” is better rendered in English as “She watches. . .” (Scott, New International Version); Revised English Bible expresses this idiomatically with “She keeps her eye on. . ..” See 15.3, where the same verb is translated by Revised Standard Version as “keeping watch.” “The ways of her household” refers to the “conduct” (Revised English Bible), “doings,” or “affairs” (New International Version) of the family. The literal sense of the line is that “She watches closely what goes on in her household” (Scott); but both Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version understand this to apply to the needs of the family, and they include this in their renderings. Good News Translation has “She . . . looks after her family’s needs,” and Contemporary English Version “She takes good care of her family”; these are both good models for translators.

“And does not eat the bread of idleness”: A number of English versions follow Revised Standard Version in reproducing the form of this idiom, but it is difficult for most readers to understand what it means. To “eat the bread of idleness” means to be habitually idle or lazy. So Contemporary English Version translates “She . . . is never lazy,” and Good News Translation “She is always busy”; and translators are advised to follow one of these models. Note that Good News Translation reverses the order of the lines for a natural expression in English; translators may find this helpful in other languages also.

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 .