Translation commentary on Proverbs 8:19

“My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold”: “Fruit” is used figuratively to mean “what I produce,” “my gifts,” or “the gifts I give.” “Gold” (see 3.14) is the term used in poetic discourse to refer to this precious metal, which is known nearly everywhere, although sometimes through words borrowed from another language. “Fine gold” refers to a purer form of gold, one that contains little or no other elements such as sand. In some languages the expression is “gold, even better than the most expensive gold.”

“My yield than choice silver”: The figurative language continues. “Yield” renders a word that refers to the produce from a crop. “Choice” is the same word used with gold in verse 10. It is possible to translate “fruit” and “yield” literally, but you may find it better to shift to expressions that are not figurative and say, for example, “What I give you is better than gold or even better than the most costly gold, and what you receive from me is better than the best silver.” The verse may also be reduced to “What I give you [or, what you get from me] is more valuable than the finest gold or the best silver.”

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 .

complete verse (Proverbs 8:19)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 8:19:

  • Kupsabiny: “What a person gets from me is good (better) surpassing simple wealth/riches.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “What you have from me
    is more precious than fine silver or gold.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “What can-be-gotten from me is more precious/[lit. great-in-price] than the very pure gold or silver.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The blessing that comes-from me, it is more valuable than the best gold and silver.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also pronoun for “God”.

SIL Translator’s Notes on Proverbs 8:19

8:19

Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:

19a
My fruit is better than gold, pure gold,

19b
and my harvest surpasses choice silver.

8:19a–b

My fruit is better than…my harvest surpasses: In this verse, the benefits that wisdom gives or produces are described using the agricultural terms fruit and harvest. Literally, fruit is the produce of a fruit tree or vine, and harvest refers to any crop, including grain and fruit. Here they refer figuratively to the result of having wisdom. What wisdom gives is better or more valuable than gold or silver. The verb surpasses is supplied by the Berean Standard Bible. In Hebrew, the comparative phrase better than applies to both “my fruit” and “my yield.”

In some languages, it may be clearer to use nonfigurative language. For example:

What I give is better than the finest gold (New Century Version)
-or-
What you receive from me is more valuable than even the finest gold (Contemporary English Version)

gold, pure gold…choice silver: The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as gold, pure gold is literally “gold even fine-gold.” The two synonyms function together to mean “very fine gold,” so a number of English versions, including the New International Version, have combined them into one phrase. For the word choice, see 8:10b, where it describes gold.

General Comment on 8:19a–b

In some languages, it may be more natural to combine and/or reorder the parallel lines. See the Display for 8:19a–b (combined/reordered).

© 2012, 2016, 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.