Do not laugh with him, lest you have sorrow with him: The Greek verb translated have sorrow with does not necessarily imply tears, although Good News Translation is not wrong to say “cry over.” The Good News Translation rendering of this line is idiomatic; it means “If you laugh with him now, one day you will have to cry over him.” This is good, although “cry with him” would be closer to the Greek. Luís Alonso Schökel has a fresh approach, saying “don’t laugh with him, and you won’t cry with him.” We could translate “Don’t laugh with him now and you won’t have to grieve over him later.”

And in the end you will gnash your teeth: People who are constantly upset may have the habit of clenching their jaws so tight or grinding the teeth so hard that the teeth are actually injured. Ben Sira uses this image to indicate a state of constant mental turmoil. Although English-speaking people are just as likely to clench their jaws as anyone else, this is not a familiar idiom in English. For others with this problem, it might be better to abandon the image entirely by saying “You will live in constant worry and regret.” Or, if a translator is following the last suggestion for the first line, another possible rendering is “You will never have to live in constant worry and regret.”

An alternative model for this verse is:

• Don’t laugh with him now and you won’t have to grieve over him later, being in constant worry and regret.

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.