For wisdom is like her name, and is not manifest to many: This verse is hard to understand without appealing to the Hebrew, where the keyword is “discipline” (Good News Translation) not wisdom. In Hebrew the word for “discipline” sounds very much like a word meaning “far removed.” There is a wordplay in the original text; “discipline” deserves the name “distant,” because it is not obvious to many people. Biblical scholars recognize this wordplay, but the problem is how to translate it. Good News Translation has an acceptable approach. Another approach is:

• The very word “discipline” implies that few people achieve it.

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.