How much better it is to reprove than to stay angry!: This advice has a modern sound to it, made more so by Good News Translation‘s reference to keeping “anger bottled up,” which is an idiom in English. However, Contemporary English Version provides a better model here for many languages: “It is better to speak up than to let anger eat away at you.” Good News Translation does well to introduce this verse with “But,” since there is a contrast with the previous verse. Yes, there are times when reprimanding someone is not appropriate, but it’s even worse to let resentment ferment without expressing it.

This is verse 2b in Revised Standard Version. The Handbook urges translators to follow Good News Translation, New Revised Standard Version, and other more recent versions in calling this verse 3.

And the one who confesses his fault will be kept from loss: Loss is rendered “failure” in An American Translation and New Revised Standard Version. Good News Translation interprets it as “embarrassment”; similar is “disgrace” (New English Bible, New American Bible) or “humiliation” (Box and Oesterley). Good News Translation‘s interpretation is better; it is simply truer to the situation where embarrassment or loss of face is involved. Admitting that you are wrong is not necessarily going to keep you from failing at something—the failure or loss may have already occurred—but it can certainly take the edge off personal embarrassment. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible‘s approach to the whole line may be better: “and he who admits his faults will get through without getting hurt.” Another possible model is “Admit when you are wrong, and you will not be hurt as badly.” Contemporary English Version is also helpful:

• When you are wrong, admit it,
and you will save yourself
a lot of trouble.

At the end of this line (verse 2b in Revised Standard Version), Revised Standard Version adds a footnote giving a verse 3 found in some manuscripts. This verse, consisting of two lines, occurs as verse 3 in the Old Latin; the Greek manuscripts that contain it put it at the end of verse 8. New Revised Standard Version places these lines in a footnote at the end of verse 8. Some other translations, such as Good News Translation, take no notice of the addition at all, and this is what we recommend.

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.