The flute and the harp make pleasant melody, but a pleasant voice is better than both is literally “Flute and harp sweeten songs, and more than both, a pleasant tongue.” The flute is a long, thin, hollow musical instrument. The sound is produced by blowing into or over a hole at one end; the tune is made by fingering holes along its length. Many cultures have instruments similar to the flute, and translators should not have any difficulty finding a suitable term. The harp is a stringed instrument; the musician plucks the strings by hand. Some cultures may have several stringed instruments of various sizes; a large one with a number of strings should be used (see the illustration). However, where such stringed instruments are unknown or not used, we may say something like “large musical instrument with strings for plucking.” Contemporary English Version reverses the order of the lines as follows:

• A pleasant voice is sweeter
than the music
of flutes and harps.

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.