For her thought is more abundant than the sea, and her counsel deeper than the great abyss: More abundant (Good News Translation “vaster”) and deeper (Good News Translation “more profound”) translate one verb, which is in the first line of the Greek text. Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation are choosing adjectives appropriate for sea on the one hand and for great abyss on the other. The sea (Good News Translation “ocean”) is pictured as vast; the great abyss (Good News Translation “deepest waters beneath the earth”; see the comments on verse 5) is portrayed as deep. Good News Translation‘s translation of this verse is imaginative. Her thought is expressed as “The possibilities of Wisdom” which are open only to the wise; her counsel is interpreted as that from which a wise person may draw, that to which a wise person has access, in solving life’s problems: “her resources.” The wise person has a wide ocean of possibilities that other people do not have, and Wisdom’s counsel offers an ocean depth of resources, advice, and experience to draw from. Here is a more practical model than Good News Translation for this verse:

• There is no limit to Wisdom’s insight; it is as wide as the ocean. There is no limit to what Wisdom can teach us; it is as deep as the deepest waters beneath the earth.

The imagery of water in this verse connects this section with the following section.

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.