“For pressing milk produces curds”: The word “For” indicates that this verse gives the reason for the advice of the previous verse. The term “pressing” is the first word in each line of this verse; it is a rare word referring to the action of squeezing, pressing, or wringing something. The word “produces” is also in each of the lines; it means literally “makes come out.” In English the appropriate word to use with “milk” is not “pressing”, but “churn” (Contemporary English Version, Good News Translation) or “churning” (New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version); and all these versions recognize that what the process of churning or vigorous stirring “produces” is “butter.” Where people know about making butter or cheese from milk, translators will be able to use the terms they have for these processes. In other cases it may be possible to use a description of the action of pressing together or churning. One translation says, for example, “If you take some cow’s milk and turn it around, turn it around, butter will come.”

“Pressing the nose produces blood”: In this context “pressing” refers to an action that involves some violence. New International Version says “twisting the nose” and New Jerusalem Bible “wringing the nose,” but these are not completely natural in English. A more natural way of expressing the thought is “If you hit someone’s nose, it bleeds” (Good News Translation).

“And pressing anger produces strife”: We may say that this is the “punch line” of the saying. It gives the reason why the behavior described at the beginning of the previous verse is unwise. There is a play on words in Hebrew between the previous line and this line (the term “anger” is derived from the Hebrew word “nose”). The expression “pressing anger” may best be rendered as “stirring up anger” (New International Version, and see Good News Translation) or “whipping up anger” (New Jerusalem Bible). In languages other than English this is often translated simply as “if you make people angry.” For “strife” see 18.6. “Strife” is translated “trouble” in Contemporary English Version and Good News Translation; in some languages it is natural to say “there will be fighting.”

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 .