Let neither gluttony nor lust overcome me: Good News Translation does well here. In some languages it will be helpful to specify the objects or goals of gluttony and lust; for example, “Don’t let me be overcome by desires for food or sex.”

And do not surrender me to a shameless soul: There is a rather complicated picture here. A shameless soul (that is, someone who feels no shame) is what the writer sees himself becoming if he is arrogant, envious, and overcome by greed and lust. If the Lord does not give him strength to overcome these temptations, the Lord would be giving up on him, leaving him to his own powers, to be consumed by his own sin. Good News Translation is good here, although idiomatic. Another possible model is “Do not let these shameful passions rule over me.”

Contemporary English Version restructures this verse, reversing the order of the lines as follows:

• And don’t let me be controlled
by shameless desires
for food or sex
or anything else.

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.