Put your feet into her fetters, and your neck into her collar: Compare Matt 11.29-30. Ben Sira is urging his readers here to submit to Wisdom as her slave. Fetters are chains binding the feet; collar does not refer to an article of clothing. It too is an object that restrains the person wearing it; the word is used of dog collars. Good News Translation keeps the imagery (“chains … yoke”), and if a reader has read verses 18-23, these images should be clear enough. Notice that Good News Translation wisely reintroduces the name of “Wisdom,” rather than relying on pronouns here. That is especially important in a new paragraph or unit of thought. But some translators may wish to abandon the metaphors by saying “Be a slave to Wisdom, as if she owned you body and soul.” But before deciding on how to translate this verse, translators should look ahead to verses 29-30, where these images (fetters, collar) will be used again; in that passage it will be more difficult to avoid their use. So Contemporary English Version has:

• Become a slave to Wisdom,
with her chains fastened
around your neck and feet.

For those translators who cannot personify Wisdom, a possible model is the following:

• Follow the Lord’s commandments as if you were his slave, and he had chains fastened around your neck and feet.

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.