We recommend that translators follow Good News Translation in combining these two verses so that the material may be freely rearranged for better sense. New American Bible, Box and Oesterley, and Shekan rearrange the lines in these verses as follows: 22a, 23b, 23a, 22b. This order presents a better contrast between the wise and the foolish in each pair of lines. Good News Translation rearranges the order as follows: 23a, 22a, 22b, 23b. This is done for translational reasons, so that the first two lines describe the conduct of the fool and the last two lines the conduct of the wise person. The Handbook recommends the order in Good News Translation, and will discuss the lines involved in Good News Translation‘s order.

A boor peers into the house from the door, The foot of a fool rushes into a house: Good News Translation combines boor and fool in “stupid person,” which is proper. While the English word boor is certainly appropriate in this context, the Greek word for boor means essentially the same thing as the word translated fool. In cultures where the dwellings do not have doors, verse 23a may be rendered “A stupid person will stand outside [or, at the entrance] to someone’s house and peer in.” Good News Translation pictures this person first peeking into the house and then going inside. Good News Translation has the word “march,” which is usually used of soldiers on parade, but in this setting it implies that the person is rude and arrogant; it also implies the idea in rushes. The translator should picture the behavior of someone rude enough to walk right into a person’s house without waiting for an invitation. An alternative model for verse 22a is “and then pushes past the owner right into the house.”

But a man of experience stands respectfully before it, but a cultivated man remains outside: Experience here describes a person with “savoir faire,” someone who is adept socially, who knows how to be courteous in a variety of situations. Cultivated describes a person with “good manners,” someone who is polite. A better rendering than Good News Translation for these two lines is “but a courteous person with good manners will be polite enough to wait outside.”

An alternative model combining verses 22 and 23 is:

• A rude person will stand outside [or, at the entrance] to someone’s house and peer in. Then he pushes past the owner right into the house. But a courteous person with good manners will be polite enough to wait outside.

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.