All lawlessness is like a two-edged sword; there is no healing for its wound: All lawlessness refers to “Every lawless act” (Good News Translation), any act that goes against the Law of the Lord. Committing such an act leaves you like a two-edged sword leaves you—badly sliced up. The sword pictured here was long, broad, and pointed. It was sharp on both edges to allow it to kill by slashing back and forth. It would have been held with both hands so as to put the whole strength of one arm behind the slash in each direction. It was also made of iron, and heavy. In English this weapon is called a “broadsword.” Rather than compare lawlessness to a sword, Good News Translation says that it leaves a wound, and then compares its fatal wound to the wound left by the sword: “Every lawless act leaves an incurable wound, like one left by a double-edged sword.” Since it did its damage by slicing through a person rather than by piercing, few victims would survive. An alternative model for this verse is:

• Every time a person disobeys the Law of the Lord, the disobedience kills, just like a sword with two edges that a soldier swings this way and that [or, to and fro].

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.