Those who understand sayings is literally “Those who are understanding in words.” This relative clause is ambiguous. Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and New Jerusalem Bible understand it to refer to people who understand what they hear (similarly Revised English Bible, New American Bible); but others (New English Bible, An American Translation, Luís Alonso Schökel, La Bible Pléiade, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible) take it to refer to people who are skillful in using words. Translators may take this either way and be on good ground, but we suggest going with Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. The rest of the verse goes on to talk about skill in using words. If the initial clause means the same, it is hard to account for become skilled themselves; it seems then to say that those who are skillful with language will themselves show skill with words, which says nothing. The Greek word for understand is probably used in the sense of recognizing wisdom (in words).

Become skilled themselves: Good News Translation misses the meaning of the Greek verb here. It does not refer to simply being wise, but to being wise in a special way, being clever, subtle, careful, skillful, precise. Here it surely refers to the same thing as the next line: composing proverbs. An American Translation translates “compose cleverly themselves,” and New English Bible says “display their special wisdom.” An alternative model for the first line of this verse is “If you appreciate wise sayings when you hear them, you will become skilled at composing them yourself.”

And pour forth apt proverbs: This refers to devising many proverbs, proverbs that are to the point, appropriate, accurate. The verbal image pour forth suggests that original proverbs come from the mind of a wise person like water gushes out a spring. New English Bible expresses this verbal image in noun form by rendering the whole line as “by a flow of apt proverbs.” The same idiom, pour forth, occurs in 39.6 and 50.27. Good News Translation does not attempt to represent the words; rather, it restates the general idea here in terms of the effect that proverbs have on others. Good News Translation‘s rendering here is partially dictated by its translation of the previous clause, “you will become wise yourself,” which as discussed in the previous paragraph, conveys the wrong meaning. We cannot therefore recommend following Good News Translation here, except, if a translator wishes, in the use of the second person pronoun.

An alternative model for this verse is:

• People who recognize wisdom when they hear it can also express themselves well. They compose remarkable proverbs; their words are a flood of wisdom.

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.