Translation commentary on Sirach 3:20

For great is the might of the Lord; he is glorified by the humble: A contrast is drawn here between God’s power and the humble attitude on our part which pleases him. Each of the two lines is quite clear in meaning; the translational problem is relating them to one another. Most translations do not try; both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation simply put the two statements up against one another. New Jerusalem Bible expresses the relationship by saying “for great though the power of the Lord is, he accepts the homage of the humble.” This is the idea to convey: Even though the Lord is supremely powerful (or, has tremendous power), he is glorified by the humble. The final clause means that only the humble are in a position to recognize the extent of the Lord’s glory, and praise him for it.

An alternative model for this verse is:

• Even though the Lord is extremely powerful, it is humble people who praise him as he deserves.

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.

Translation commentary on Sirach 3:21

Seek not what is too difficult for you may be rendered “Don’t try to understand things that are too hard for you” (Good News Translation), or even “Don’t try to learn things you cannot understand” (Contemporary English Version).

Nor investigate what is beyond your power: This line clearly parallels the first one in meaning. Good News Translation‘s model is helpful. However, some translators may wish to combine the two lines as follows: “Don’t try to learn or investigate things you cannot understand.”

This verse, and the rest of the section, is best understood against its historical background. If we are correct in dating the writing of this book to the early second century B.C., we can understand that ben Sira is reacting against the influence of Greek culture, and of Greek philosophy and science in particular. Our author is a conservative Jew; his thinking is that if something is not revealed in the Law, the Prophets, and the other Writings, people should not inquire after it. Some rabbis even placed the study of some passages in Scripture off limits to anyone but experts—passages such as Ezek 1. The mystical spirituality that some people derived from such passages was far removed from the severely practical nature of ben Sira’s approach to religion.

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.

Translation commentary on Sirach 3:22

Reflect upon what has been assigned to you: Revised Standard Version badly misses the point here; assigned to you would be better expressed as “commanded you.” The reference is surely to the commandments of the Torah, the Jewish Law—those are what have been assigned to the observant Jew. An American Translation translates “Think of the commands that have been given you.” New Revised Standard Version says “Reflect upon what you have been commanded.” New English Bible “Meditate on the commandments you have been given” has been simplified in Revised English Bible to “Meditate on what the Lord has commanded.” Good News Translation is quite specific with “Concentrate on the Law, which has been given to you.” Good News Translation‘s translation does a good job of placing this line in context. It means “When you ask serious questions about the meaning of life, focus on studying the Law and what the Lord has revealed there.”

For you do not need what is hidden is literally “for you have no need of hidden things.” The Lord is the one who has kept some knowledge hidden, kept some things from being known. In the author’s mind, the Lord has kept these things unknown to human beings by not revealing them in Scripture. New English Bible does well to translate “what the Lord keeps secret is no concern of yours.” And Good News Translation puts it plainly: “You do not need to know about things which the Lord has not revealed.” “Revealed” is a theological term that fits at this point, but for many translators it will be too technical. In such cases, “You do not need to know what the Lord has not told us about” is a good equivalent.

An alternative model for this verse is:

• Concentrate on [or, Think about] the Law that the Lord has given you, and don’t worry about things that the Lord has not told you about.

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.

Translation commentary on Sirach 3:23

Do not meddle in what is beyond your tasks: Good News Translation connects this line to the previous verse, making it the conclusion to the previous sentence. This enables Good News Translation to reduce what is beyond your tasks to “them.” That is a bit too much. Even “concern yourself” is a bit colorless. Meddle is better. Paul uses the Greek verb rendered meddle to startling effect in 2 Thes 3.11, where he describes certain people as doing no “work,” but being “mere busybodies.” “Work” renders the verb in its root form, but in the compound form used here it means “to be a busybody, to be meddlesome.” The Greek text of Sirach makes the same contrast between your tasks (“works”) and being meddlesome. The meaning of meddle is expressed in colloquial English as “mess [or, monkey around] with.” The author is saying “Don’t go monkeying around with things that are none of your business.” Translators should have no difficulty finding idiomatic expressions in their own languages that mean “to meddle in someone else’s business.”

For matters too great for human understanding have been shown you: Good News Translation‘s introductory “After all” places this line in good perspective. The author is telling us that we have more than we can ever handle with what the Lord has revealed, so why examine things he didn’t see fit to reveal? Another approach for this line is “After all, what God has told us about is more than we humans can ever understand.”

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.

Translation commentary on Sirach 3:24 - 3:25

For their hasty judgment has led many astray: Translators do not need to translate the connector For since this verse begins a new statement. It is not connected to the previous verse. Hasty judgment translates one Greek word, which has been translated by others in the following interesting ways: “opinions” (Good News Translation), “speculations” (New English Bible), “theorizing” (Revised English Bible), and “imagination” (An American Translation). All of these renderings are close to the meaning of the Greek noun. We prefer something like “speculations” or “imaginations.” Notice that Good News Translation reorders the elements of this clause to a more understandable form. It could be expressed in the present tense as “Many people are misled by their own speculations.” In the active voice this could be expressed as “Many people allow their imaginations to cause them to stop following the Lord.”

And wrong opinion has caused their thoughts to slip: Revised Standard Version provides a literal translation here. The idea of thoughts slipping is foreign to English. Good News Translation does better with “their wrong ideas have warped their judgment.” New Revised Standard Version is similar with “and wrong opinion has impaired their judgment.” This might be slightly better as “and their mistaken ideas warp [or, distort] their judgment.”

Some manuscripts add verse 25. It should be included in a footnote at the end of verse 24 (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation).

If you have no eyes you will be without light is literally “Not having pupils you will be deprived of light.” Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation sound rather odd. Everyone has eyes. Some people’s eyes, however, do not work. Some blind people appear to have no pupils, and this is probably what the author was thinking of in using the word “pupils.” Closer to the meaning of this line is “If your eyes do not function, you cannot see the light.”

If you lack knowledge do not profess to have it: This line follows from the previous one, which only stated the obvious. Here a parallel is drawn, which may not be as obvious. Everyone knows that if you do not have the ability to see, you cannot have vision, and you cannot pretend to. You can lack knowledge, however, and try to fool people. Don’t do it, says the writer. Good News Translation has “don’t claim to have knowledge if you don’t have it.”

Translating verse 25 from the Greek text as suggested above will satisfy most translators. There is more to this, however. The Hebrew text of Sirach contains a version of this, which is translated by Good News Translation in its footnote. As Good News Translation explains there, in the Hebrew these lines appear after the material numbered verses 26-27 in our text. The Hebrew is also a bit simpler than the Greek; see Good News Translation, which has “If you have no eyes, you cannot see; if you have no knowledge, you cannot have Wisdom.” Although Revised Standard Version, along with most versions, chose to omit verse 25, New Revised Standard Version has placed 25 in the text, but translates the Hebrew form, and does so literally as follows:

Without eyes there is no light;
without knowledge there is no wisdom.

However, note that in Hebrew the word rendered “eyes” is literally “pupils.”

The simplest procedure here, again, is to deal with this verse as Revised Standard Version has done. The added note in Good News Translation about the Hebrew reading is unnecessary. However, some translators may wish to include this verse in the text. If so, we recommend following New Revised Standard Version in using the Hebrew form quoted in the last paragraph, and numbering it 25.

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.

Translation commentary on Sirach 3:26

A stubborn mind will be afflicted at the end: Stubborn mind is the meaning of the literal “hard heart.” We are talking here about people who are not willing to change their minds about anything; they are stubborn, obstinate, bullheaded. They have closed minds. Such people, says ben Sira, will sooner or later get into serious trouble; they will wind up in trouble. A possible alternative model is “If you are stubborn, you will end up in trouble” (Contemporary English Version).

And whoever loves danger will perish by it: This line is intended to underscore the point of the previous line. People who play with fire get burned. People who flirt with danger will sooner or later get hurt, even killed. People with closed minds will sooner or later find themselves in trouble. That which is not obvious in the first line is made obvious by the second line. Again Contemporary English Version has a helpful model: “and if you love danger, it will kill you someday.”

Good News Translation expresses the ideas in this verse by using the second person, and making “Stubbornness” the subject of the first sentence. The connection between the two lines could have been expressed in this way:

• Stubbornness will get you into trouble in the end, just as surely as living dangerously will kill you.

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.

Translation commentary on Sirach 3:27

A stubborn mind will be burdened by troubles is literally “A hard heart is weighed down by troubles.” We could say “A stubborn person will have a heavy load of troubles” or “Those who are stubborn must carry a heavy load of troubles.” Translators who cannot use this figurative language may say “Those who are stubborn must undergo all kinds of troubles.”

And the sinner will heap sin upon sin: This line is intended to underscore the point of the previous line. The writer assumes his reader will agree that sinners commit one sin right after another (literally “and the sinner will place sin on top of sins”). It’s that way, he says, with stubborn, closed-minded people; they are loading themselves down with one trouble after another.

An alternative model for this verse is:

• Just like the sinner who keeps adding sins to his pile of sins, a stubborn person is going to have a heavy load to carry—a load of troubles.

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.

Translation commentary on Sirach 3:28

The affliction of the proud has no healing: There is no similarity in Greek between the word translated “afflicted” in verse 26 and the word for affliction here, but we are talking about substantially the same thing. Arrogant, stubborn people are going to bring troubles on themselves. They will be in distress, and there will be no way out, no escape, “no cure” (Good News Translation).

For a plant of wickedness has taken root in him: New Jerusalem Bible expresses this line well by saying “since an evil growth has taken root there.” The “evil growth” is arrogance, pride. Good News Translation also states the meaning well with “wickedness has taken deep root in them.” New English Bible is similar, but a bit better, since it makes a closer connection with the previous line. For the whole verse it says:

When calamity befalls the arrogant, there is no cure;
wickedness is too deeply rooted in him.

In 1.20 the author said that honoring the Lord was “the root of wisdom.” Here arrogance, which is incompatible with wisdom, is also compared to a plant, but it is no stately tree; it is a harmful growth. Honoring the Lord averts trouble, but there is no cure for the troubles arrogance brings. There is no room for wisdom to take root and grow. Arrogance has poisoned the soil and only sins can grow there, and the sins are deep-rooted weeds. Contemporary English Version reverses the order of the lines as follows:

• Evil has taken root
inside the arrogant,
and so when disaster strikes,
they cannot be rescued.

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.