Confirm your word and keep faith with him: The two clauses here mean essentially the same thing: “Keep your promise” (New Revised Standard Version). Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version translate this line as a conditional clause, which is fully in keeping with the meaning. Contemporary English Version‘s translation is simpler than Good News Translation‘s rendering and provides a good model for translation: “If you keep your promises to pay what you owe.”

And on every occasion you will find what you need appears to mean “you will always be able to borrow what you need” (Good News Translation). If you have a reputation for repaying loans faithfully, people will not be afraid to lend you money in the future. It is also possible to put the stress on the lender and say, for example, “and other people will always lend you what you need” (similarly Contemporary English Version).

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.