Brothers and help are for a time of trouble: Brothers, as Good News Translation rightly translates, refers broadly to a person’s “Relatives.” Help means “helpers” (Good News Translation).

But almsgiving rescues better than both: Good News Translation is wordy here, so perhaps we may say “but the best help comes from giving to the poor” (Contemporary English Version). Compare Tob 12.9.

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.