Give, and take, and beguile yourself: This line sums up the advice the writer has been giving in this section. The rest of the section is a meditation on death. Good News Translation‘s introductory “So” reflects nothing in the Greek, but it signals a concluding statement; this is helpful. Give refers back to verse 13, and Good News Translation is on good ground in translating it “be generous.” Take refers back to verse 14, and involves more than Good News Translation allows with “be willing to receive from others.” Perhaps a better equivalent is “Take advantage of your opportunities.” The translator must be careful here to avoid any idea of taking things by wrongful means. Beguile yourself is literally “deceive your soul” (An American Translation). It is rendered “indulge yourself” by New Revised Standard Version and New English Bible and “pamper yourself” by Revised English Bible. Both of these renderings are good (the next line speaks of luxury), but “enjoy yourself” (Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible) or “treat yourself well” (Contemporary English Version) is probably sufficient. The same idiom is used in 30.23, where Revised Standard Version has “Delight your soul.”

Because in Hades one cannot look for luxury: Hades is the Greek equivalent for the Hebrew Sheol. It may be rendered “the world of the dead” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) or “the place where dead people go.” Ben Sira does not expect a meaningful existence after death (compare 17.27-28; 41.4). Luxury (that is, non-essential or excessive pleasures) is a better equivalent for the Greek word used here than “pleasures” (Good News Translation). The point of this verse is that you should indulge yourself while you can, because you certainly can’t do it after you die. So we may translate this line as “because there are no luxuries in the world of the dead” or “Dead people have no pleasures at all in the place where they have gone.”

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.