Good News Translation reorders the lines of verses 10 and 11 and joins them. Good News Translation does this well, and translators may follow it with confidence, but there is a way to keep the order of the original without disrupting the thought. We will follow the Revised Standard Version order here to explain this.

And there is a friend who is a table companion …: This third kind of false friend is discussed in verses 10-12. This kind is like the first one in verse 8 (the two are described by the same line but will not stand by you in your day of trouble), but this one is worse because he presumes on your friendship even in good times. We could introduce this false friend by rendering verse 10 as follows:

• There are some people who will even sit [or, eat] at your table, but who still will not stand by you [or, come to help you] in trouble.

Repeating the same clause used in verse 8b, along with some emphasis such as “even … still” may make this second occurrence less intrusive than it is in Revised Standard Version.

In your prosperity he will make himself your equal … is literally “And in your good things he will be as you….” Good News Translation translates in your prosperity with “as long as things are going well,” and Contemporary English Version has “in good times.” For he will make himself your equal, Good News Translation uses the English idiom, “they will stick to you like your shadow,” which captures the meaning nicely. Contemporary English Version says “they will be so close,” while New Revised Standard Version translates “they become your second self.” What ben Sira means is that these false friends, as long as things are going well, will go so far as to act as if they had your own authority in your own home, to be bold with your servants. Your servants have to take orders from you, and they may feel like they have to obey your presumptuous guests, but a guest is making himself suspect by behaving so. Such people just “move in and take over.” An American Translation has an excellent translation for verse 11: “They will make themselves at home, as long as you are prosperous, and will give orders to your servants.” Another possible model is:

• When you are prosperous, they will stay so close to you that your servants will have to obey them [or, that they will give orders to your servants].

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.