In verses 1-3 we are warned against getting into contests with influential people, rich people, or people who talk too much. In verses 4-7 we are warned against acting in a superior fashion to certain people who are in a less fortunate position. These verses caution us against being smug.

Do not jest with an ill-bred person: Jest in this context does not mean sitting around and telling jokes. If the response of the ill-bred person to what you do is to speak ill of your ancestors, he does it in an angry response to what you have said. This jesting is clearly ridiculing someone, making fun or laughing at him. An ill-bred person is someone who has not been raised properly, “who has bad manners” (Good News Translation). Such people give offense to others either because they do not know better or, in this case, because they do not care.

Lest your ancestors be disgraced means that the person you have made fun of may say something foul about your parents or earlier ancestors, perhaps cursing them. To the Jew of ben Sira’s culture this would have been deeply insulting. This verse could mean, however, that anyone who makes fun of someone with bad manners or someone of limited education is, by that act, disgracing his own ancestors. An American Translation follows this sense with “Do not make sport of an uneducated man, Or you may dishonor your own forefathers.” It is quite possible to translate the Greek word for ill-bred as “uneducated” here. This is an appealing interpretation, but the Handbook believes the interpretation followed by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation should be followed. Good News Translation provides a good model for the whole verse.

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.