He that shows mercy will lend to his neighbor: Good News Translation translates this as an imperative: “Be kind enough to lend to your neighbor when he needs help.” The clause “when he needs help” is not in the Greek, but is supplied by Good News Translation to clarify the meaning. It is clearly implied in the situation, as well as in the phrase shows mercy. In some languages it will be necessary in this context to make explicit the object of lend, namely “money”; for example, this line may be rendered “Be kind enough to lend money to your neighbor.” Neighbor here seems to refer to people known to you, not to people in general. For this line New Jerusalem Bible has “Making your neighbour a loan is an act of mercy.”

And he that strengthens him with his hand keeps the commandments: With his hand is a Hebrew idiom and need not be represented in translation (though New Jerusalem Bible is clever with “lend him a helping hand”). Good News Translation states the meaning of the line clearly: “You are keeping the Lord’s commands if you help him.”

Contemporary English Version reverses the order of the lines in this verse as follows:

• Obey God’s Law
about helping your neighbors;
have mercy and lend them money
when they truly need it.

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.