And he gave skill to men: Skill here clearly refers to medical skill, so it may be rendered “medical knowledge” (Good News Translation) or “knowledge about medicinal plants.”

That he might be glorified in his marvelous works: In spite of the grammatical ambiguity with the pronoun he, which Revised Standard Version mentions in its footnote, the reference here is surely to God being glorified, not people. Good News Translation (similarly Contemporary English Version) words this line in the first person, which works well. Another possible model is “so that we will praise him for the marvelous things he does.”

Verses 5-6 may be worded as follows:

• ( A piece of wood once made bitter water fit to drink, and this showed the Lord’s power. He gave medical knowledge to humans so that we will praise him for the marvelous things that he does.)

The parenthesis begun with verse 5 closes at the end of this verse.

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.