Although some commentators and translations include this verse in the same paragraph with verses 23b-25, it is really a brief separate saying. Its theme is simple: “Straightforward, honest speech . . . is a mark of true friendship” (Toy).
“He who gives a right answer kisses the lips”: This is literally “he kisses the lips [the person] returning straight words.” The sense of “returning straight words” is more likely to be giving “an honest answer” (New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, Contemporary English Version, Good News Translation) or “a straightforward answer” (Revised English Bible) than an answer that is correct in fact. The term “right” is rendered “straight” in 8.9. “Kisses the lips” is a figurative or idiomatic expression that is taken by Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version to be “a sign of true friendship.” Following this interpretation the whole verse may be rendered, for example, “The person who always gives you a straight answer shows that he is a real friend to you.”
One African language says it like this: “Your friend who tells the truth is your real friend.”
Most other English versions translate “kisses the lips” literally; but if this action has a different significance for readers, such as it can have in modern English, the meaning is likely to be lost or changed. Starting from the understanding that a kiss was a sign of love or affection, Whybray suggests that “the most probable interpretation of the verse is that the honest judge or witness is as welcome to the innocent as the kisses of a lover.” An example of how the verse may be translated in this case is “The person who gives an honest answer brings happiness like the kisses of a loved one.”
In cultures where kissing is not customary between adults this may be adjusted to say, for example, “. . . like the embrace of a friend.”
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 .