Do not give your glory to another: The Law is Israel’s unique and shining possession. The people are urged not to surrender it to others. This is the second reference in the poem on Wisdom (the other is Bar 3.10) that connects the poem with the setting of the book of Baruch in the time of the exile. Glory or “glorious” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) here means “magnificent,” “splendid,” “marvelous.”

Your advantages to an alien people: Your advantages refers to something (Wisdom) that the Jews have that is better than what other people possess. Good News Translation combines glory and advantages as “glorious privileges,” while Contemporary English Version has “the glorious Wisdom that rightfully belongs to you.” If translators put this verse into poetry, it must be clear to the readers that these two words both refer to Wisdom. Another and an alien people refer to the same people, that is, foreigners, and may be combined by translators who are not putting this into poetry; for example, “any other people [or, nation].”

An alternative model keeping the poetic structure is:

• Do not give it [or, the Law] away to foreigners.
It is your most glorious possession.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.