You have gathered nothing in your youth; how then can you find anything in your old age?: This is stated as a proverb, the kind of proverb that makes its point without stating what it is really talking about. For example, someone who quotes the English proverb “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink” is not talking about horses. The person means that you can provide people with opportunities but you can’t force them to take advantage of them. In this verse ben Sira is not talking about earning, saving, and finding in general; he is talking about getting wisdom, about becoming wise. Good News Translation expresses the meaning of the verse well. Note that it also renders the rhetorical question here as a statement. New English Bible also expresses this verse well even though it is a little more literal:

• If you have not gathered wisdom in your youth,
how will you find it when you are old?

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.