Cruel is he who does not keep words to himself: The grammar of the Greek in this line seems to suggest that ben Sira is backing off from the immediate situation visualized in verses 9-11, and making a general comment about anyone who does not keep confidences. Good News Translation and New Jerusalem Bible heighten this impression by setting off verses 12-13 as a separate paragraph. This is probably a mistaken impression. The next line of this verse is clearly still talking about the same important person who has called you forward and who is testing you in conversation. He has the power to imprison you. Is he testing your loyalty? Anything you say can be held against you. Surely verse 12a is continuing the thought of verses 9-11. The Hebrew, although it reads differently, points in this direction. By understanding this line in Greek as still referring to the important person in the previous verses, it could be translated “He is merciless, this man who does not keep confidences” or “This man is merciless—he does not keep secrets.”

He will not hesitate to injure or to imprison is literally “and he will not hesitate regarding injury and chains.” “Injury” here does not necessarily imply physical injury, though it is not ruled out.

The following may serve as a model for this verse:

• Here is a man who will make public what you tell him. He is merciless, and will not hesitate to make you suffer or chain [or, lock] you up in prison.

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.