This verse parallels the previous verse. Verse 12 deals with lending, and this one deals with guaranteeing other people’s debts. The conclusions are the same.

Do not give surety beyond your means …: This verse is concerned with a social situation in which someone wishes to borrow money, but the lender demands as a condition that someone else guarantee to repay the loan if the borrower is unable or unwilling to do so. This situation must have arisen often; it is discussed in Pro 6.1-5; 11.15; 17.18; 22.26-27. The advice is simple: don’t guarantee such a loan unless you are in a position to pay it off. You may not have to, but you have to be prepared for the worst. For the first line of this verse Good News Translation has “You should not guarantee anyone else’s loan to an extent that you cannot afford,” and Contemporary English Version says “Don’t ever guarantee a loan for more than you can afford.” In some languages it will be necessary to build information into the translation that was understood in the Hebrew society, but may not be clear to readers in modern societies; for example, “When someone receives a loan of money, and you are asked to guarantee it, don’t guarantee it for more than you can afford.”

But if you give surety, be concerned as one who must pay may be rendered “But if you do guarantee a loan, figure out beforehand how you will be able to pay it.”

Ben Sira will return to the subject of lending money and guaranteeing loans at greater length in 29.1-20.

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.