This verse in Revised Standard Version corresponds to Good News Translation‘s verses 17 and 18. We urge translators to follow Revised Standard Version‘s verse numbering.

Being surety has ruined many men who were prosperous: Now ben Sira begins to caution the reader against guaranteeing loans recklessly. Good News Translation says “Guaranteeing loans has ruined many prosperous people.” Another possible model is “Wealthy people have often become poor by guaranteeing loans.”

And has shaken them like a wave of the sea: Good News Translation has taken an unusual step here by turning this simile into a metaphor (“and caused them unsettling storms of trouble”). Here the metaphor may actually be simpler, and translators for whom it will work should consider it. Another possible approach is “tossing them about like a boat in a storm.”

It has driven men of power into exile, and they have wandered among foreign nations: Men of power means “Influential people” (Good News Translation) or “people of high status in society.” The Greek verb translated driven … into exile literally means “deprived of home.” Good News Translation is actually closer with “lost their homes,” although the context makes it clear that these formerly powerful people were forced to leave their native lands as well as their houses. The last two lines of this verse may be rendered “It has forced influential people from their native lands, and made them homeless in foreign countries.”

An alternative model for this verse is:

• Wealthy people have often become poor by guaranteeing loans; they have been tossed about like a boat in a storm. Influential people have been forced from their native lands and have become homeless in foreign countries.

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.