Translators should follow the stanza break here in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.

There are winds that have been created for vengeance: God, of course, is the creator of these winds. Vengeance refers to God’s use of these winds as punishment. An alternative model is “The Lord created fierce winds to punish people.”

And in their anger they scourge heavily: Good News Translation and New Revised Standard Version read the Hebrew here, which we do not recommend. The line in Hebrew is highly defective; all that can be read with confidence is the word for “dislodge” (Good News Translation “move”). The word “mountains” is not even present, although there are reasons for thinking it belongs. We will stay with the Greek, but there is a textual problem there. For their anger, some manuscripts read “his anger,” and for they scourge, they read “he scourges,” referring to God. New Jerusalem Bible so translates, saying “in his fury, he uses them [winds] as scourges.” Since the fourth line of this verse refers explicitly to the Lord’s anger, we recommend “his anger” here. We could say “and when he [or, the Lord] is angry, he uses them as whips.” The first two lines may be rendered “The Lord created fierce winds to punish people, and when he is angry, he uses the winds as whips.”

In the time of consummation they will pour out their strength: The word their is found only in a few manuscripts, and should not be read. Consummation refers to the occasion when God unleashes his anger. New Jerusalem Bible goes so far as to say “on the day of doom,” and New Revised Standard Version has “on the day of reckoning.” Good News Translation seems better with “In times of judgment,” since there is no evidence anywhere else in the book that ben Sira has any idea of a final judgment in the Christian sense. He speaks of any occasion when God uses the forces of nature as instruments of punishment.

And calm the anger of their Maker: When God uses the winds as punishment, his anger ceases.

An alternative model for this verse is:

• The Lord created fierce winds to punish people.
When he is angry and punishes the guilty,
violent storms lash them like whips,
until their maker is no longer angry.

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.