Like a eunuch’s desire to violate a maiden is a man who executes judgments by violence: A eunuch is a male who has been castrated. To violate a maiden means to take away a girl’s virginity by force. This may be rendered “to rape a young woman” (Good News Translation) or “to rape a virgin.” Executes judgments is subject to a wide variety of interpretations; for example, New Jerusalem Bible says “impose justice” and Good News Translation has “get a point across.” But the Greek word translated violence in the relative clause who executes judgments by violence raises two big problems. (1) Does it mean actual physical violence, where someone is wounded or even killed? Or does it refer to the forceful imposition of one’s will? (2) Is the person who executes judgments the one who applies violence or force (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation), or is he the one to whom violence or force is applied (so New Revised Standard Version and New American Bible with “who does right under compulsion”)? Studying the verse in context, we believe that in case (1) ben Sira does not mean physical violence, and that in case (2) the person is thought of as applying force, rather than suffering it. Ben Sira is talking about something an ordinary person has opportunity to do, in which that person might be tempted to impose his or her own will. The opportunity to “impose justice” does not often come to the ordinary person, but we may often use forceful language (the subject of this section) to get our own way, that is, to “execute judgment” or “get a point across.” The ethics involved in the verse are private, not public. Good News Translation has it right, but could be clearer by rendering the whole verse as “A person who tries to force his will on others is like a castrated man trying to rape a young woman.” Can a castrated man rape a woman? Of course not. Can you get your point across (win an argument) by loud, insistent talk? No. Talk without wisdom is just as ineffective a tool as a eunuch’s sexual equipment.

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.