Pamper a child, and he will frighten you: He will frighten you is literally “he will surprise you,” which means, of course, he will surprise you in a disagreeable way. Another way to say this is “you will be shocked at the things he does.” Good News Translation is good with “he will be a disappointment.”

Play with him, and he will give you grief: Ben Sira is again overstating the case here. He does not mean that we should never play with our children, but it shouldn’t be done to excess. So a possible model for this line is “If you continually play with him, he will give you only sadness.”

Good News Translation effectively combines the two lines of this verse, and provides a good model. An alternative model is:

• If you pamper your child, you will be shocked at the things he does; if you continually play with him, he will give you only sadness.

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.