Peoples will declare their wisdom: Peoples refers to nations other than Israel. So for this line we may say “Other nations [or, The people of other nations] will talk about their wisdom.”

And the congregation proclaims their praise: Congregation refers to Israel, so Good News Translation translates “God’s people.” (For consistency with the rest of the book, this should be “the Lord’s people.”) Revised Standard Version uses the present tense here, but the future tense in the previous line. This translates literally Rahlfs’ Greek text. Ziegler’s text has the future tense in both lines. Translators should have the same tense in both lines.

An alternative model for this verse is:

• Other nations will tell about their wisdom,
and the Lord’s people will praise them.

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.