As a stake is driven firmly into a fissure between stones, so sin is wedged in between selling and buying is literally “Between joints of stones a tent peg is driven, and between sale and purchase sin is crushed [or, shattered].” Most scholars seem to overlook the meaning of the Greek verb in the second line; the phrase is wedged really translates an emendation of the text. One explanation (Weber) of this verse is that just as a tent peg is driven between stones to hold it firmly, so in like manner sin fits firmly in the context of buying and selling. (This appears to accept the emendation.) There is an obscure picture here, and we are not convinced that anyone knows what ben Sira had in mind. The following interpretation of this verse is at least a possibility that attempts to take seriously the Greek text of the second line: A tent peg cannot be driven between stones that are too close together; the peg, if it is wooden, would only splinter into pieces. Selling and buying are like two such stones that someone has tried to separate with a wooden stake. Sin is the pile of splinters that results. In the author’s image, sin is not driven or wedged in between anything. Sin is the inevitable ground-up result of business transactions, of buying and selling. With this interpretation the verse may be rendered as follows:

• Trying to eliminate sin from selling and buying is like trying to drive a stake between two heavy stones. The stake splinters, and there is sin all over the place.

It is an imperfect picture, but it is the best we can do. Translators who do not like it are free to follow anything they do like. Among other approaches, the best may be Weber’s idea, which could be reflected in translation like this:

• You cannot eliminate sin [or, dishonesty] from buying and selling; it fits there like a tent peg that someone drives into the ground between tight-fitting stones to make it stay.

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.