This verse is the first of a series of four short discussions on family matters that begin in Greek with the question “Do you have…?” (verses 22, 23, 24, 26). Good News Translation translates three of these questions as conditional clauses by beginning with “If you have….” This works well. Good News Translation does not use this device here in verse 22, although it could easily have done so, and probably should have, as Contemporary English Version does with “If you have cattle….” Perhaps it did not do so, feeling it a bit offensive to put “animals” in the same category as members of one’s family. But ben Sira is talking here about managing the domestic economy (he has just discussed the place of slaves, and in some sections of society at that time, the economy of the family depended on their livestock). Di Lella (1987) points out that slaves, animals, sons, daughters, and wives were all thought of as a man’s possessions. Compare 33.24 (Revised Standard Version; 33.25 New Revised Standard Version); Deut 5.21.

Do you have cattle?: The Greek word translated cattle refers to any kind of domestic livestock kept in flocks or herds, such as cattle, sheep, or goats. A literal translation of the question form may work in some language. Others may choose to say “If you own cattle,” or even “If you have animals on a farm.”

Look after them means “take good care of them” (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version).

If they are profitable to you, keep them: Good News Translation‘s translation here is appropriate in a developed modern society where things can be evaluated in terms of money. In many societies today the situation is more like the one ben Sira is thinking of, where livestock are valuable because they produce milk and provide meat, not because they are exchanged for money. He probably means “keep them as long as they are profitable,” “keep them as long as they bring you a profit” (Contemporary English Version), or “… as long as they are valuable.”

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.