The mark of a happy heart is a cheerful face: This line is simple to follow in the context; both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation express it well. Another possibility is “If you feel happy, you will smile [or look cheerful].”

But to devise proverbs requires painful thinking: For proverbs see the comments on 6.35. A different Greek word is used here, but there is no real difference in meaning. This line is not so simple. How does it connect to the context? There has probably been some confusion in the manuscripts, and the Hebrew is not particularly clear—though it says nothing about proverbs. It is probably best to see painful thinking as parallel to the cheerful face in the previous line, and to suppose that the writer is thinking of the painful thinking being seen on the face, so we suggest the following renderings for the whole verse:

• If you feel cheerful, you will look cheerful—but making up proverbs is such hard work you may look like you are scowling.

• If you feel cheerful, you will smile—but making up proverbs is such hard work, it may make you frown [or, look tired].

What we would really like to think is that ben Sira’s grandson, working on his translation, came to this point and found the Hebrew hard to understand, so he just wrote this as a humorous reflection on what he was doing. Modern translators may sympathize.

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.