Gain the trust of your neighbor in his poverty, that you may rejoice with him in his prosperity: In his prosperity is literally “in his good things.” Good News Translation renders rejoice with him as “share his happiness.” This is a reasonable interpretation, unless the author is thinking of sharing the successful person’s material goods, as he seems to be. Ben Sira is not talking about selfless friendship; there are practical reasons for keeping friendships in good order. There is a textual problem here. The Greek texts of both Rahlfs and Ziegler read “be filled” rather than rejoice, which is found in most Greek manuscripts. “Be filled” suggests that the reward for gaining the trust of your neighbor is material benefits if he becomes successful; this does seem to be the meaning of the next two lines. Although rejoice is preferred by most translations, including Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, we recommend following the printed Greek texts of Rahlfs and Ziegler. So a possible model for the first two lines of this verse is “Gain the confidence of your neighbor if he is poor, then you too may benefit if he becomes successful.”

Stand by him in time of affliction, that you may share with him in his inheritance: Good News Translation interprets inheritance in a broad sense, but in this case it is probably intended literally. We suggest the following model for the last two lines of this verse “Stand by him when he is in trouble, and if he later inherits wealth, he may share it with you.”

The four lines of this verse may be combined as follows:

• If you have a neighbor who is poor or in distress, stand by him and gain his confidence. Then you may benefit if he becomes successful, or inherits wealth.

Although Revised Standard Version adds in its footnote an addition to this verse from certain Greek manuscripts, other translations do not, and we recommend that translators ignore the addition. If a translator feels strongly about including it, the following may serve as a model: “We should never look down on poor people, and we should not admire rich people who do not have good sense.” The phrase “poor people” renders a Greek noun translated restricted circumstances by Revised Standard Version. The meaning of the word in this context is uncertain.

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.