One who throws a stone at birds scares them away: It will be good if translators can deal with this verse in a form similar to that of verse 19. Good News Translation, for instance, begins each line of each verse with “If you….” Good News Translation would be improved by saying “a rock” rather than “rocks,” not because the Greek here is singular (which it is), but because it takes only one rock to scare a flock of birds away, just as it takes only one insult to end a friendship.

And one who reviles a friend will break off the friendship: What happens when you insult a friend? Picture what happens when you throw a rock at a flock of birds feeding on the ground. They go flying off. That’s what happens when you insult a friend; there goes the friendship.

Following through with the model for verse 19, this verse may be rendered:

• Throw a rock at birds and you scare them away. Insult a friend and you destroy the friendship.

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.