Translation assessment involves investigating the extent of accuracy or inaccuracy in translation of textual units and levels as well as examining their positive and negative points. As one of the most basic, effective units of translation, words are capable of incorporating various semantic levels; consequently, finding their precise equivalent is of substantial importance. Translators are always faced with a set of challenges because the translation of a word must be adequate and aligned with the context of the text. And sometimes, the semantic load of a word is untranslatable. In order to eliminate or mitigate the percentage of such challenges in translation, different methods can be employed. Ladmiral (1994) laid out a set of components in this regard which guides the translator on how to transfer lexical concepts, so that a relative equivalence can be achieved between the source and target text through selecting words as equivalents. As a religious-literary text, Nahj al-Balagha contains different layers of meaning at lexical level. The present study seeks to investigate different methods for interacting with the words within Nahj al-Balagha in translation using Ladmiral’s theory (1994) as well as to examine the performance of Ali Shirvani (2005) in his translation of the words of this book. The findings of the study show that considering Ladmiral’s components (1994), the translator’s approach in certain parts of translation has been target-oriented, while in other parts, it has been source-oriented. Furthermore, despite his faithfulness toward source language words, the translator has been focused on transferring the message and meaning of the text and in some cases, he has been satisfied with translating certain references and contents which has resulted in his translation to be devoid of difficulty and ambiguity in understanding the purpose of the text.