Are death and bloodshed and strife and sword, calamities, famine and affliction and plague: Death and bloodshed seem to refer to the same event, namely “a bloody [or, violent] death.” Strife and sword refer to “war,” but translators may use two synonyms if they wish; for example, Contemporary English Version has “war or fighting.” Calamities refers to disasters of various kinds: fires, earthquakes, floods and so on. The Greek word translated affliction refers to any kind of ruinous disaster. Since here it applies to animals as well as people, and since “sickness” (Good News Translation) is covered with the next word, this could well refer to accidents. An animal might suffer a broken leg, which would mean certain death. Plague here probably refers to epidemic disease (Contemporary English Version “horrible disease”). Good News Translation translates “epidemic.” Unless someone is going to translate affliction as “sickness,” which we do not recommend, “disease” would be sufficient here.

An alternative model for this verse is:

• violent [or, bloody] death, war or fighting, disasters, famine, accidents, sickness, or some horrible disease.

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.