Do you have children?: This question can be expressed as a condition by saying “If you have children….” Although the Greek word rendered children may refer to sons or daughters, and children is literally proper, the writer is probably talking of sons in this verse. He is definitely speaking of daughters in the next verse, and what he says here is the kind of thing that would apply in ben Sira’s culture to sons. Good News Translation is justified in translating “sons,” but translators will have to make up their own minds about this. Both Revised Standard Version and Contemporary English Version say “children,” and this is probably better.

Discipline them, and make them obedient from their youth: Make them obedient is literally “bend their necks.” Good News Translation‘s translation is good, but it takes the hard edge off ben Sira’s lesson by saying “Teach them self-discipline” rather than make them obedient. Compare 30.12a, which is almost identical in Greek, where Good News Translation does better with “make him respect your authority.” Shekan translates “cure their stubbornness.”

Contemporary English Version has a helpful model for this verse:

• While your children are young,
teach them to obey 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.