When he says, “I have found rest, and now I shall enjoy my goods!”: The hard-working, self-denying person of verse 18 sees that he has enough to live on without working any longer. His plan is expressed in the quotation here, which is what he is saying to himself, so when he says is rendered “He says to himself” by Good News Translation. I have found rest means that the speaker says he has reached the point where he no longer has to work for a living. Good News Translation “I can finally sit back” is an English idiom meaning to relax, to work no longer, to “take things easy.” I shall enjoy my goods is literally “I will eat from my goods” (see the Revised Standard Version footnote), but this means what New English Bible says: “I can live on my savings.” Good News Translation is also good with “I can … enjoy what I have worked for.”

He does not know how much time will pass until he leaves them to others and dies: The pronoun them refers to the person’s possessions, his goods. The meaning here is that when the person decides to quit work and finally start enjoying life (remember, he has denied himself pleasure all his life in order to work; verse 18), he has no way of knowing how much time he has left to live. Sooner or later he must die, and leave anything he has left to someone else. Good News Translation reverses the two verbs in the last line (leaves and dies) for the sake of logic. First the person dies, then others inherit his wealth. Contemporary English Version is similar with “you soon may die, and then your wealth will belong to others.” See Eccl 2.21.

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.