Because the Spirit of the Lord has filled the world: Apparently the Spirit of the Lord here refers to Wisdom, the “holy and disciplined spirit” of verse 5 and the “kindly spirit” of verse 6. Here, however, the focus is on God himself. For has filled the world, translators might change the imagery and say “covers the whole world” or “is everywhere in this world” (Contemporary English Version). See Jer 23.24.

And that which holds all things together knows what is said: This thought is borrowed from the Stoics, Greek philosophers who spoke of a “world soul” that holds the universe together. Translators can use Good News Translation “and holds everything in it together” as a model, or they can say “and gives everything in the universe its proper place.” Compare the similar language in Col 1.17; Heb 1.3.

Grammatically this verse is a causal clause (Because …), which is concluded in verse 8 (“therefore…”); but this makes for a long sentence, one that is hard to follow. The Good News Translation rewording (“Since the Lord’s spirit fills … and holds … [therefore] she knows…”) is really not quite what the text says. A better approach would be “The Lord’s [or, Lord God’s] spirit covers the whole world, gives everything in it its proper place [or, holds everything in it together], and knows what [or, every word] we say. That is why….”

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.