A slip on the pavement is better than a slip of the tongue: Good News Translation reverses the phrases in this line by saying “A slip of the tongue is worse than a slip on the pavement.” One way is no better than the other; translators should choose whichever is more natural. A slip of the tongue is something we say which is both wrong in some way, and unintentional. It may be as small a thing as mistake in grammar that we would not ordinarily make. But it can refer to saying something the content of which is ill-advised. We all know the experience of saying something, and immediately knowing that we have said the wrong thing, that what we have said is going to hurt someone or even hurt ourselves. Ben Sira compares a mistake like this to slipping and falling on a hard surface (pavement). It happens that in both Greek and English the word slip can be used of a literal fall and of a foolish statement. In many languages this correspondence will be impossible to preserve. An alternative model is “Saying the wrong thing is worse than falling on a hard surface [or, the ground].”

So the downfall of the wicked will occur speedily: The writer continues the image of a person slipping and falling. It happens suddenly and unexpectedly. In the same way the wicked fall (in a figurative sense), suddenly and unexpectedly. Good News Translation spells out the connector So by adding “just as suddenly as a person slips and falls.” This may not be necessary; for example, we could render the whole verse as follows:

• Saying the wrong thing is worse than falling on the pavement, and when wicked people go to ruin [or, fall], it happens just as suddenly.

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.