Wine and music gladden the heart, but the love of wisdom is better than both: For wine see the comments on 9.9. For the second line Good News Translation reads the Hebrew, which is literally “but better the love of lovers [or, husband and wife; or, friends].” Here a deliberate change appears to have been made in Greek. The more conservative course is to read the Greek with Revised Standard Version. If you choose to translate the Hebrew with Good News Translation, you should be aware that “a happy marriage” is possible, but not required. You could easily translate the Hebrew by rendering the second line as “but having friends is even better.” All this is the translator’s choice. Contemporary English Version follows the Greek with:

• Wine and music bring happiness,
but if you love wisdom,
you will be even happier.

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.