Incline your ear to the poor: Here is the lesson of verses 4b-5a, but expressed in terms of hearing. “Listen to what the poor have to say” (Good News Translation) is a good translation of this. The idea here is not that we should necessarily do whatever the poor ask, but that we should give them the dignity of our attention. This line is connected with the preceding one. Important people deserve our respect, but so do poor people. There are ways in which we show this respect. We bow our heads (at least ancient Jews did) to important people, and we listen to what the poor have to say. The Greek verbs in this line and the previous one are interesting. In verse 7 we are told, literally, to “humble” our head. Here we are told, literally, to “lean” our ear. So in a sense we bow to both.

And answer him peaceably and gently: Revised Standard Version has made a subtle error here. It translated the poor in the first line, which in English is plural. Here it refers back with a singular pronoun. (New Revised Standard Version makes it consistent.) The Greek is in fact singular in both lines, but of course the translator is free to render it singular or plural, whichever seems best. But we do need to be consistent. The Greek word for answer does not imply that the poor person has asked a question. The word need mean only “respond” to them, whatever they have had to say. Good News Translation renders peaceably and gently simply as “politely.” New Revised Standard Version does better by translating the whole line as “return their greeting politely” (similarly New American Bible, New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible). The Hebrew text uses the word shalom (“peace”), which was, and still is, used as a word of greeting. The Greek text seems to have misunderstood it. In all probability what is meant is:

• When a poor person greets you, answer his greeting [his shalom] politely [or, courteously/respectfully/kindly].

This is what we recommend.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Sirach. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.