Like a drop of water from the sea and a grain of sand so are a few years in the day of eternity: The Revised Standard Version footnote indicates that the Greek word rendered grain means “pebble,” that is, a small rock. But since English does not talk of pebbles of sand, it is translated a grain of sand. Good News Translation effectively links this verse with the preceding one. Other ways of doing this are:

• but compared to all eternity, even a hundred years is like a drop of water in the ocean or a single grain of sand.

• But when we compare a hundred years to all eternity [or, time that goes on forever], it is like a drop of water….

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.