Do not reprove your neighbor at a banquet of wine: Good News Translation misses an important point here. The author is talking about a banquet, a social occasion where people are supposed to have a good time. It is not simply an occasion when two people have been drinking together. Neighbor here means someone seated near enough to you to talk with easily. The advice of verse 30 may well carry over here—anger is ill-advised if you have been drinking—but the point of this verse seems to be that you should not spoil a happy occasion by being unpleasant. An alternative model for this line is “Never rebuke [or, scold] a person at a dinner where wine is being served.”

And do not despise him in his merrymaking: Good News Translation captures the meaning of the Greek verb here with “Don’t hurt his feelings.” New English Bible is also good with “do not … make him feel small.”

Speak no word of reproach to him, and do not afflict him by making demands of him: Good News Translation “It’s not the time…” effectively joins these two lines to the context. Good News Translation “ask him to pay back a debt” is more specific than afflict him by making demands of him, but it is justified.

A possible model similar to Contemporary English Version for this verse is:

• Don’t scold your friends
or be disgusted
when you drink and celebrate with them
at a party.
And don’t make them feel bad
or upset them with a reminder
that they owe you money.

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.