All wisdom comes from the Lord and is with him for ever: Ben Sira’s purpose in writing is to share with others what he has learned; he wants his readers to know from the beginning that any wisdom that exists originates with God, who is never without wisdom. In 24.23 he will identify wisdom with God’s Law, the Torah. The idea of wisdom as eternally present with God and yet as shared with human beings is very close to the Greek idea of the Logos, or Word. John 1.1 is not far in meaning from Sir 1.1; both are statements of themes that will be repeated throughout the two books. In Greek (as in Hebrew) the noun for wisdom is feminine gender, and is naturally referred back to by feminine pronouns. In this passage the first of these pronouns will occur in 1.5. But it is more than a grammatical matter. Wisdom is spoken of as a person, a female figure. It is only a figure of speech; the writer is not actually thinking of Wisdom as a kind of goddess. But the personification of Wisdom was common to several wisdom books. It is found in Pro 8.1–9.6 and Bar 3.9–4.4. This makes it appropriate, if possible, to refer to Wisdom in translation by the feminine pronoun. New Jerusalem Bible for instance, translates the second line of this verse as “she is with him for ever.” The pronoun is not used in the Greek of verse 1, so New Jerusalem Bible is anticipating what will come later. New Revised Standard Version shows some inconsistency. It will freely translate the feminine pronouns later as feminine pronouns in English, but here it translates “it.” Good News Translation is subtle. In the second line the noun Wisdom is repeated, but capitalized as a proper name; observe how this works in 1.9. New Revised Standard Version is helpful however, in supplying a different verb with the second line: “and with him it—forever.” This choice of words may help the reader understand ben Sira’s thought that even though God shares his wisdom with human beings, he himself becomes no less wise.

In a number of languages it will not be possible to find one satisfactory term for wisdom, but translators will need to use descriptive phrases, the meaning of which will be dependent on the particular context. For example, wisdom in line one may be expressed by something like “truly wise,” but in line two “God [or, he] is wise” will be a more appropriate translation, so the verse may be rendered:

• Only the Lord can help people become truly wise,
and he himself is wise forever.

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.