Do not find fault before you investigate: If you find yourself in a position where you have to object to something someone has said or done (find fault), you should investigate the situation first. Find fault and reprove are the same idea, so Good News Translation combines them by saying “start criticizing.” “Get your facts straight” (Good News Translation), which renders investigate, is a good English idiom for finding out the truth of the matter, discovering what the facts really are. We may expand this line to “Find out if a person is telling you the truth before you start criticizing him.”

First consider, and then reprove: After discovering the truth, then you should consider, “think the matter through” (Good News Translation). Only then should you speak.

Another possible model for this verse is:

• If you think you must criticize someone, make sure you know the truth of the matter. Give it careful thought, and only then speak.

For the vocabulary used here, and the possibility that this verse is speaking of a judicial situation, compare Deut 13.14.

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.