These two verses are a jungle of problems, textual and otherwise, in Greek. In verse 2b we cross over into nonsense. The Hebrew is not much better. Describing all these problems would take far too much space for our purposes. What we will do here is offer a solution that we believe makes sense. It is not found anywhere else (although New American Bible is on the right track), but it seems to offer good sense in the context while requiring only one small change in the text. Notice these points:

1. The previous subsection begins in verse 14 by speaking of the health of the rich man and the poor man.
2. Verses 3-4 of this chapter draw a comparison between the rich man and the poor man.
3. The idiom in verse 1, wastes away one’s flesh, is usually taken to refer to losing weight, but it can just as well refer to losing one’s health in general.
4. This makes both verse 1 and verse 2 contain a reference to loss of health; verse 2 speaks of a severe illness.
5. In verse 2, instead of Wakeful anxiety (literally “Worry over sleeplessness”), the Hebrew reads “Worry over sustenance.” We will follow the Hebrew (with New American Bible and Good News Translation, although Good News Translation misinterprets it), and interpret it as “Worry over making a living, about where the next meal is coming from.” This is the one small change in the text we are making.
6. This means that verse 2 is talking about the poor person’s kind of worry about money, while verse 1 talks about the rich person’s kind of worry about money.
7. This makes verse 1 parallel to verse 3, and verse 2 parallel to verse 4. It also recalls the contrast between the rich and the poor that opened the discussion of good health in 30.14.

We offer this as a model for verses 1-2:

• Rich people [or, Some people] cannot sleep because they are worrying about all their money. It destroys their health. Poor people [or, Other people] cannot sleep because they are worrying about just making a living. It’s like having a serious illness. *
* Verses 1-2 are unclear in both Greek and Hebrew.

We have not touched on all the problems in these two verses in the discussion above. We have simply offered a clear path through the jungle. We have not quoted and followed the Revised Standard Version text, since it would involve a discussion of problems which our translation evades.

An alternative model for those who are not convinced may be:

• 1-2 Worrying about money makes it impossible to sleep, but rich people hurt their health by doing it. It’s as bad as a serious illness. *
* Verses 1 and 2 are unclear in both Greek and Hebrew.

This model combines the second line of verse 1 and the first line of verse 2.

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.