Like an olive tree putting forth its fruit: For olive tree, see 24.14. “Loaded with fruit” (Good News Translation) describes a tree heavy with fruit; another model is “weighed down with fruit.”

And like a cypress towering in the clouds: For cypress see 24.13. Good News Translation identifies the cypress as a “tree” in order to help readers who might not know this. This line may also be rendered “like a cypress so tall that it touches the clouds.”

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.