Translation commentary on Sirach 20:12

There is a man who buys much for a little, but pays for it seven times over: Seven times is an idiom meaning “many times.” Good News Translation restructures this verse completely, but it conveys the precise meaning. Contemporary English Version is similar to Revised Standard Version:

• What seems to be a bargain
may cost you seven times
what it is worth.

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.

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