An assembly of the wicked is like tow gathered together, and their end is a flame of fire: Compare 16.6; Mal 4.1. Wicked here is literally “lawless”; Good News Translation translates “people who have no respect for the Law,” or we may say “people who habitually disobey the Lord’s Law.” Tow consists of fibers from the flax plant, ready to be spun into linen thread. It burns very quickly. See Jdg 16.9; Isa 1.31. Tow is not familiar to modern North Americans, and Good News Translation adopts a cultural equivalent, “kindling,” which is any material (usually small bits of resinous wood) that catches fire quickly but (unlike tow) burns long enough to light a long-lasting fire. Any cultural equivalent may be used; the point is that the material catches fire quickly and burns up quickly. The flame of fire does not refer to hell, and Good News Translation is misleading; ben Sira clings to the Old Testament idea of Sheol rather than to any meaningful afterlife in heaven or hell (compare 17.27-28; 41.4). The idea is that wicked people, admired and apparently successful, put on a brilliant but short-lived show; they will meet a quick and decisive end. An alternative model for this verse is:

• A group of people with no regard for the Law is like a pile of straw; it makes a big, bright fire, but is soon 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.