A greedy man’s eye is not satisfied with a portion: Greedy describes a person who wants everything he can have, who always wants more than he has. Good News Translation combines this line with the preceding one into one sentence, which is possible. “Never satisfied with what he has” (Good News Translation) is okay, but it would be little sharper to say “never satisfied with just a part of anything” or “never satisfied with just his own share of something.” Compare 31.13.

And mean injustice withers the soul: Good News Translation (and New Jerusalem Bible) is translating a conjectural emendation. This is not necessary. The sense of this line in Greek can be adequately represented like this: “This is greedy, it is unjust, and it will dry up the soul.” Withers the soul (Good News Translation “will shrivel up a person’s soul”) is a powerful image. An equivalent image in English is “will suck the life out of a person.”

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.