Jealousy and anger shorten life may be rendered “Jealousy and anger will cut your life short” (Contemporary English Version), or even “… will make you die at an early age.”

And anxiety brings on old age too soon: Good News Translation reverses the lines of this verse. To be “old before your time” (Good News Translation) means to feel and act—and perhaps to look—like an old person even though you are not. Although a different Greek word is used here for anxiety than for the word rendered “worry” by Good News Translation in the previous verse, Good News Translation uses the pronoun “It” here to refer back to “worry” in the previous verse. This is a helpful way to restructure the verse and is recommended by this Handbook.

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.