Let righteous men be your dinner companions: The righteous men are not necessarily the wise ones you ask for advice (verse 14) or the astute interpreters of Scripture you hold discussions with (verse 15), but those whose company you enjoy at a meal. They should be righteous, followers of the Law; New English Bible says simply “good men,” which is not bad. It is interesting that the Greek uses the word for men here, referring to males only. The author’s assumption, of course, is that only men would be eating together at a meal of any social significance; he has already let his readers know that they should not join other men’s wives at a meal (verse 9). Good News Translation does well, however, to say “righteous people.” This rendering allows the meaning of this particular verse to come through without the author’s own social limitation, and yet without actually mistranslating it. An alternative model for this line is “Ask only good people over to eat dinner with you.”

And let your glorying be in the fear of the Lord: Once again at the end of a section we return to the theme ben Sira insists on, the fear of the Lord. This does not mean being afraid of God, but dealing with him in ways appropriate to his majesty and righteous demands. To glory in the fear of the Lord is to take pride in serving, worshiping, and obeying the Lord. A person who is concerned with social standing would be proud to be seen at dinners with important people, famous people, people of influence. But ben Sira tells us that our pride should be in serving the Lord, so we ought to choose to associate with people who are devout and good. We may translate this line as “and you should be proud to serve the Lord.”

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.