The first two lines of verse 9 are parallel to the first two lines of verse 8, and the last two lines of the two verses are parallel.

Do not disregard the discourse of the aged: Good News Translation chooses to express this in a positive form: “Pay attention to what old people say.” We could say “Take seriously what old people have to say.”

For they themselves learned from their fathers: The author points out that the lessons the elderly have to teach are not simply theirs, but what they learned from their fathers. This does not necessarily mean their fathers in a literal sense, but from their teachers, those who taught them, “those who came before them” (Good News Translation), but these people could also be their ancestors. Contemporary English Version combines the first two lines of this verse in a helpful way:

• Listen when old people tell you
what they learned
from their ancestors.

Because from them you will gain understanding and learn how to give an answer in time of need is literally “because from them you will learn understanding and how to give an answer in time of need.” How to give an answer in time of need is a particular kind of understanding. Good News Translation renders these two lines well with “You can learn from them, and they can teach you how to have an answer ready when you need one,” or we may say “Then you will understand how to give the best answer when you need one.”

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.