From morning to evening conditions change: The point of this line is not that conditions gradually change during the day. It is that your whole life can change very quickly—in a day’s time. Conditions (Good News Translation “Things”) refers to our situation in life; we can get up rich and go to bed poor. New American Bible legitimately translates this line “Between morning and evening the weather changes.” This translation can be combined with the Good News Translation rendering as follows: “Life can change in a single day, just like the weather.”

And all things move swiftly before the Lord is a literal translation, but Good News Translation catches the real significance of the line by expressing it as a threat: “the Lord can act very quickly.” That is, the Lord can quickly bring about the sudden change from days of wealth and plenty to days of poverty and hunger (verse 25).

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.