As a clue to changes of heart four turns of fortune appear, good and evil, life and death: The first two lines here are so unclear in Greek that even the textually conservative New Jerusalem Bible resorts to translating the Hebrew. We will get to that, but let’s first try to sort out the Greek. As literally as possible, Ziegler’s Greek text reads “The heart is a track of change; four parts arise [or, it gives rise to four parts].” Rahlfs, reading other manuscripts, has something like “A track of change of the heart gives rise to four parts.” We will work with Ziegler’s text. “The heart” refers to “the mind.” A “track” here is a track of footprints left behind by a person or an animal. The footprints are a record of what has happened there. You can tell that someone passed through and what direction he was going in. The Greek word for “change” has to be interpreted in the light of the context. It seems to refer to conflicting or unstable ideas; a related word is used in 43.8 to refer to phases of the moon. We think the Greek means this: “The mind [heart] is a record [track] of conflicting ideas [change], which goes off [arises] in four directions [parts].” A better way to say this is “The mind is like ground where conflicting ideas have left their tracks, tracks that go off in four directions.”

The Hebrew is not altogether clear itself. Literally, it reads something like “The heart [mind] is the root of guidance; it puts forth four rods.” New American Bible translates this as follows: “The root of all conduct is the mind; four branches it shoots forth” (similarly New Revised Standard Version, New Jerusalem Bible, Luís Alonso Schökel, Shekan, and more dynamically, Good News Translation). The Hebrew word for “conduct” is a problem; it normally refers to “guidance, direction.” The Hebrew word for “branches” is also a problem. This meaning seems to be read out of the word “root,” but the word itself normally refers to a rod used for guidance or punishment, even to a scepter. In fact, one manuscript reads “scepter,” a word that resembles this word in Hebrew. We think the Hebrew means something like this (remember this is in a section dealing with giving and taking advice): “All direction for life originates in the mind, and there are four guiding principles.”

The Hebrew must have given the Greek translator problems. Perhaps his text was not clear. The word for “root” could have been mistaken for one meaning “track,” and it is possible to point to other places in the lines where a mistaken text or unclear manuscript could have resulted in a word being mistaken for another that was then translated into Greek. Remarkably, whether a translator follows the Greek or Hebrew (at least as explained here), the meaning is roughly the same. We all seek guidance and direction, from trusted advisers, from our own judgment, from God. All such direction and guidance involves thought, but whatever the human mind thinks about, it all boils down to four themes: good and evil, life and death.

And it is the tongue that continually rules them: Good News Translation is a good literal translation of either the Hebrew or the Greek here, but New English Bible offers a better dynamic approach, saying “and always it is the tongue that decides the issue.” The meaning is that no matter what kind of thinking we do, it is what we say, what is spoken, that counts. Compare Pro 18.21.

We offer this as a model for verse 17-18:

• All guidance for life begins in the mind. It has four guiding principles, * good and evil, life and death; but what we finally speak is the only thing that matters.
* All guidance … principles; this is unclear in both Greek and Hebrew.

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.