“Bloodthirsty men hate one who is blameless”: “Bloodthirsty men” is literally “men of bloods” and refers to killers or murderers. “Hate” is the same Hebrew verb found in 25.17; but while it may have the same sense of “dislike,” here the feeling of “dislike” seems to be more intense. For “blameless” see 11.5.

“And the wicked seek his life”: The Revised Standard Version footnote shows that “the wicked” is literally “the upright.” For comments on “the upright” see 2.7. However, “the upright seeks his life” appears to give a wrong meaning, which is why Revised Standard Version has used “the wicked” here. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project rates the Hebrew text as “A” and translates “and even upright men. . ..” Good News Translation “but righteous people. . .” is typical of many versions that retain the rendering “the upright” and try to find ways of interpreting “seek his life” in a positive sense. There is a second textual problem in this line. Revised Standard Version “seek his life” translates a Hebrew verb that usually means “seek to kill.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project understands it here to mean “begrudge.” In fact, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project offers two translations of this line: (1) “Murderers hate the blameless man, and even upright men begrudge [are annoyed by] his life”; or (2) “Murderers hate the blameless man, but do the upright begrudge his life?” No modern versions appear to follow the latter interpretation. The Good News Translation footnote shows that it has modified the Hebrew “seek” to get “protect.” Scott and others modify the Hebrew to get “are concerned for.” There is no certain solution to the translation of this line, but translators are encouraged to follow either Good News Translation or the first suggestion of Hebrew Old Testament Text Project.

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 .