Wine drunk to excess is bitterness of soul, with provocation and stumbling: The rather spare grammar of this verse allows it to be understood in either of two ways: (1) The phrase with provocation and stumbling may be taken to modify drunk, so that wine, drunk (a) to excess and (b) with provocation and stumbling, leads to bitterness of soul. New Jerusalem Bible and La Bible Pléiade take it this way. The Hebrew supports this understanding, although its wording is different. (2) On the other hand, it can be taken to modify bitterness, so that wine, drunk to excess, leads to (a) bitterness of soul, which leads to (b) provocation and stumbling. New Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, Revised English Bible, and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible take it this way. We can avoid the whole problem by reading the Hebrew, which is done by Good News Translation, New American Bible, and Luís Alonso Schökel. (Good News Translation‘s footnote translates the Greek.)

Another problem in the Greek is that the word translated stumbling is a very rare word. Stumbling is only an educated guess. What stumbling means in Revised Standard Version is impossible to say. New Revised Standard Version seems to understand it to mean literally stumbling while drunk: “Wine drunk to excess leads to bitterness of spirit, to quarrels and stumbling.”

We suggest a translation for this verse that parallels “when to drink and when to stop” in verse 28:

• … but if you drink when you are angry and upset, * and drink too much, it will make you bitterly unhappy.
* Hebrew angry and upset; Greek unclear.

This rendering understands the grammar in the first way described above, in accordance with the Hebrew. It adopts the Hebrew “angry and upset” in the absence of any other convincing explanation for the rare Greek noun. “Upset” can translate the Greek word rendered provocation. Further, “when you are angry and upset” corresponds to “when to drink” in verse 28, and “too much” corresponds to “when to stop.” The two verses together would look like this:

• If you know when to drink and when to stop, wine can make you happy and cheerful, but if you drink when you are angry and upset, * and drink too much, it will make you bitterly unhappy.
* Hebrew angry and upset; Greek unclear.

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.