For gold is tested in the fire: This is not the same Greek expression used in verse 1 of putting a person to the test, although the meaning is similar. The reference here is to refining gold by melting it, so as to separate the pure gold from other material. The technical term is “assayed,” which New English Bible uses, but tested is acceptable. The sense could perhaps be brought out a bit more clearly by a small addition: “Gold is tested for purity by fire.” A possible rendering in the active voice is “A furnace tests gold for purity.” Compare Psa 12.6; Pro 17.3; 27.21; Isa 48.10.

And acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation: The verb from the previous line is to be supplied here: Acceptable men [are tested] in the furnace of humiliation. Acceptable men refers to people (not specifically “men”) whom God accepts or approves, if acceptable is taken at its basic meaning. The Lord is not actually mentioned in this verse, and acceptable translates an adjective, not a passive verb form. It can be understood as meaning “worthy” (so New American Bible). “Human character is tested…” (Good News Translation) is another way of saying this, since someone who has passed this test is, by that fact, a worthy person. The furnace of humiliation compares the experience of being humiliated with the blazing heat of a furnace. If this comparison is too difficult, it can be made clearer by translating verses 4-5 in one of the following ways:

• Accept whatever happens to you, even if you have to pay the price of humiliation. Humiliation is like a furnace where human character is tested, just as gold is tested for purity by fire.

• Accept whatever happens to you, and be patient when other people humiliate you. For humiliation tests those whom God accepts just like a furnace tests gold.

If the translator does not approve of “human character” as a model, or if the concept is difficult, the second model here has “those whom God accepts” as another possibility.

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.