A translator must see the structure of this verse before working on it. There are four lines here. The first two lines are a unit; the second two lines are another unit. The two pairs of lines are parallel to each other. At the same time, lines 1 and 3 are parallel, and lines 2 and 4 are parallel. If this can be reflected in translation, it will be nice, but it is better to be clear and natural than to force language into an unnatural form. Although the original form works reasonably well in English (so Revised Standard Version), Good News Translation restructures the second pair of lines and gains in clarity, although it sacrifices some of the formal structure of the Greek.

Weep for the dead, for he lacks the light: Instead of Weep, Good News Translation uses the word “mourn.” This is how speakers of English refer to the sorrowful activities of someone who has lost a loved one. In spite of the imperative form in Greek for the word rendered Weep, this is not a command to weep for anyone. It is an observation about what people do. “We mourn for the dead” (Good News Translation) is a good rendering of Weep for the dead. We could also say “People mourn for the dead.” In Greek the dead in this line and line 3, as well as the fool in lines 2 and 4 are singular. Good News Translation translates them as plural because English style is more comfortable with such general observations in the plural. Further, in English the combination of the definite article “the” and an adjective signals a plural (Good News Translation “the dead … they have” is natural; Revised Standard Version the dead … he lacks is not). Another option for rendering the dead … the fool would be “a dead person … a fool.” The idea of dead people lacking light is strange in English; Good News Translation therefore says “they have no access to light” instead of he lacks the light, but we may say “they have only darkness.” A translator should render this in such a way that it will echo the next line, which in reference to the fool say he lacks intelligence. This is why Good News Translation, in the next line, says “they have no access to intelligence,” although in English “they have no intelligence” would be perfectly natural.

And weep for the fool, for he lacks intelligence: Here Good News Translation renders weep as “We ought to mourn” in contrast to “We mourn” in the first line. The Greek verb for weep is imperative here and in the next line as in the first line. As noted above, in the first line “We mourn” in Good News Translation simply states what people do. In this line things are different, since we do not weep involuntarily over the predicament of fools. The imperative force of the Greek is conveyed by “We ought to weep.”

An alternative model for the first two lines of this verse is “People mourn [or, weep] for the dead because they have only darkness. They should also weep for fools because they have no intelligence.”

Weep less bitterly for the dead, for he has attained rest: The comparison involved in weep less bitterly for the dead is expressed in Good News Translation with “we should go into deeper mourning for fools [than for the dead].” Good News Translation renders he has attained rest as “The dead are at least at rest.” Good News Translation‘s addition of “at least” helps bring out the contrast here, by pointing out an area where the dead have an advantage over fools.

But the life of the fool is worse than death: Good News Translation refers to “the life they lead.” “Lead a life” is an English idiom for “live a life,” which is also acceptable here; for example, “because they live a life that is worse than death.”

An alternative model for this verse is:

• People mourn [or, weep] for the dead because they have only darkness. They should also weep for fools because they have no intelligence. In fact, they should weep even more for fools, because they live a life that is worse than death. The dead are at least resting.

We may also restructure and combine the lines of this verse in a poetic structure that is similar to the Contemporary English Version rendering as follows:

• We mourn for the dead,
who rest in darkness,
but weep even more for fools,
doomed to live in the darkness of stupidity.

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.