Lose your silver for the sake of a brother or a friend: This is not telling us to go out and lose money. It means that we should be willing to give up money to help someone who needs it more. Brother here probably refers to any “relative” (Good News Translation). Lose here means “give away.” So an alternative model for this line is “It is better to give away your money [or, silver] to a relative or friend.”

And do not let it rust under a stone and be lost: Maybe people actually hid their money for safekeeping under stones (see Isa 45.3), but this is probably an exaggerated image. If your money is just going to rust away, it’s not doing you any good. It might as well be lost. It is much better for it to be doing a neighbor some good. Silver does not rust; it tarnishes. Good News Translation speaks of “money” rather than silver, and thus does not call attention to the problem. See the comments on 12.10. Good News Translation “somewhere” is not in the Greek; it is added for effect in English. It makes the notion of hiding money under a rock sound foolish. An alternative for this line that follows after the above model for the first line is “than to hide it under a rock where it will become tarnished.”

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.