Love your friend and keep faith with him: The Greek word rendered Love does not exactly mean “love” or “respect” (Good News Translation); it is both. A better rendering for this line is “Respect the trust your friends put in you; be loyal to them.”

But if you betray his secrets, do not run after him: Do not run after him means “do not try to repair the broken friendship.” Good News Translation‘s wording “you may as well forget you have a friend” is not literal at all, but it is what the Greek means. However, a better rendering is “you may as well forget that you ever had a friend.” Another possible approach is “it is useless to try to regain his good will” or “… to try to get him to like [or, respect] you again.”

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.