Listen to me, O you holy sons: Here ben Sira is talking to his readers, whom he assumes are Jews. “Devout [or, Faithful] readers” might be a good way to express holy sons, so for this line we may say “Listen to what I have to say, my faithful readers.”

And bud like a rose growing by a stream of water …: In this line, and in the next verse, the author uses poetic imagery from the plant world. The idea here is that the praise of God coming from the faithful is compared to the sweet smell of roses and lilies. This is a difficult picture (in English it is downright peculiar), but looking at the structure as follows may help:

bud like a rose growing by — send forth fragrance like frankincense
a stream of water
put forth blossoms like a lily — Scatter the fragrance
sing a hymn of praise — bless the Lord for all his works

It can be seen that the reader is told twice to blossom and after each flower is mentioned the reader is told to send forth the fragrance of that blossom. The point of the comparison does not become clear until the reader is told to sing a hymn and bless the Lord. It may be helpful to rearrange some material. The following is an example of what might be done by combining verses 13b-14:

• Praise the Lord for all that he has made! Let your hymns go up like the smell of incense, like the fragrance of lilies in bloom, like the sweet smell of roses on the stream bank.

For rose see the comments on 24.14. The identification of both the rose and lily is uncertain, and translators may use names of familiar flowers or flowering shrubs. The point here is not the precise identity of the plant, but the imagery of their fragrance perfuming the air. Bless may be rendered “thank” (see 32.13) or “praise” (see the model above).

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.