And for one who hates gossip evil is lessened: Notice that this verse is parallel to verse 5. The Greek text of this line is problematic. There are three problems: (1) The Greek as usually read (as in Rahlfs’ edition) is awkward. It is literally “and one who hates speech [gossip] is lessened as to evil.” (2) The Hebrew words for “hate” and “repeat” are almost precisely the same; the Syriac reads “repeats” instead of hates. (3) The Syriac, as well as one important Greek manuscript, reads “heart” instead of evil. (The Greek words for evil and “heart” are the same words involved in the textual problem in verse 5.) The emended text with “repeats” and “heart” makes much better sense; it says that a person who repeats speech (that is, gossip) is lessened in heart. “Lessened in heart” is an idiom meaning to go crazy; it is used in 16.23, where Revised Standard Version renders it “devoid of understanding.” The emended text is translated by Shekan, New American Bible, and the Traduction œcuménique de la Bible footnote; it is partially adopted in Ziegler’s Greek text. The arguments for it are so compelling that we recommend it to translators. As a model for this verse (following on the suggestions at verse 5), we may say:

• and if you repeat gossip [what you have heard], you are out of your mind. *
* Probable text and if you … your mind; Greek and if you hate gossip, you will have fewer troubles.

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.