When a sieve is shaken, the refuse remains: A sieve is a device with a bottom of mesh; material such as grain could be put in it and shaken. The meal would pass through the mesh, and chunks of undesirable material would be left in the sieve. According to Box and Oesterley, this would be the dung of the oxen that threshed the grain. Refuse means “undesirable leftover material,” but the Greek noun here means “dung.” It is a form of the word used in 22.2. Good News Translation translates “rubbish.” In languages that have no passive voice, this line may be rendered “When you shake a sieve, the rubbish [or, dung] remains.”

So a man’s filth remains in his thoughts: The Greek word for thoughts is better translated “talk” (Good News Translation) or “speech” in this context.

New Revised Standard Version offers a much better translation than Revised Standard Version of this verse:

• When a sieve is shaken, the refuse appears;
so do a person’s faults when he speaks.

Another possible approach is:

• Just as when you shake a sieve, the trash appears, so also a person’s faults will become clear when he talks.

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.