Do not desire a multitude of useless children: Useless is better translated “worthless,” as in Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, and New Revised Standard Version. New Revised Standard Version in a footnote on this word says that it is following the Hebrew, but that the Greek says “unprofitable.” However, in this context the Greek word for “unprofitable” can certainly be translated “worthless.” Revised Standard Version does not state the idea in this line well. No one wants a bunch of worthless children—it is no one’s ambition. What the author clearly means is that there is no future in a large family if the children are worthless. Good News Translation is good here with “A large family is nothing to be desired if the children are worthless.” Children does not refer only to young people; it refers here to a person’s offspring at any age.

Nor rejoice in ungodly sons: Good News Translation restructures this well, saying “Godless children are nothing to be proud of.” Other possibilities are “You have no reason to take pride in them [your children] if they are godless” and “If they [your children] are not devout [or, do not honor/revere the Lord], do not take pride in them.”

The lines of this verse can be combined as follows:

• Do not be proud of your children if they are worthless, if they do not revere [or, worship/serve/fear] the Lord.

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.