She will come to meet him like a mother: In this verse and the following ones, Wisdom is personified as a female figure, as in other passages. See the comments at 1.1. Here Wisdom is pictured as a mother welcoming a son who has been away from home. In some languages this may be rendered “Becoming wise will make you as happy as a son is when his mother comes to meet him.”

And like the wife of his youth she will welcome him: This line is largely synonymous with the first one, except that Wisdom is pictured here as a young wife welcoming a husband home.

These two lines may be combined easily, as Good News Translation has smoothly done, or we may translate them as follows:

• When you become wise, it will make you as happy as a son is when his mother comes to meet him, as happy as a young man when his bride welcomes him home.

Contemporary English Version, however, keeps the parallel lines and poetic form by saying:

• She will care for you
like your own mother
and welcome you, as a bride
welcomes her husband.

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.