Thou hast given command to build a temple on thy holy mountain: It is clearly implied that the command is given to “me.” Temple in some languages may be rendered “a worship house for you.” The holy mountain is Mount Zion. See Psa 2.6; 74.2. Holy in this context does not refer to moral purity, but rather means “belonging to God,” and in some languages it may be omitted as repetitive; for example, “your mountain” or “the mountain that belongs to you.” An alternative model for this line is “You have commanded me to build a worship house [for you] on the mountain that belongs to you.”
And an altar in the city of thy habitation: This line says the same as the first line, but speaks of the altar in particular rather than the temple as whole, and of the holy mountain more broadly as the city, which of course is Jerusalem. Compare Psa 46.4. In cultures where “altars” are unknown, we may say something like “place [or, platform] for sacrificing animals.” Translators may follow Good News Translation as a model for the first two lines, or we may combine them as follows: “You commanded me to build an altar and a temple [here] on your [holy] mountain in Jerusalem, the city where you live.”
A copy of the holy tent which thou didst prepare from the beginning: The Greek philosopher Plato had taught that all things on earth are copies of ideal forms above. This line applies that idea to the temple in Jerusalem; it is a copy of “that temple in heaven” (Good News Translation). Compare Heb 8.2. While the language used here is like that of Plato, the idea is consistent with biblical expressions; see Psa 78.68-69; Jer 17.12. The holy tent thus refers to the heavenly temple; the word tent is a poetic reference to the tabernacle in which the Israelites worshiped while wandering in the wilderness. From the beginning may be rendered “from the time that you made the world.” The line is probably best translated as a separate statement, as in Good News Translation.
The third line can be interpreted in another way: the temple was modeled after the tabernacle, which God ordered made from the beginning of Israel’s history, not from the beginning of the world. It is entirely possible that the author intends to remind us of both. Good News Translation “temple in heaven” deprives the reader of this possibility, but it gains more in clarity than it loses in subtlety, and fits in with the next two verses, which picture a scene in heaven. Good News Translation can conscientiously be used as a model with some changes: “It is a copy [or, It is just like] that temple [or, worship house] in heaven, which you prepared at the time you made the world.”
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.