He who loves gold will not be justified: Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation are awkward here. A better rendering would be “No one who loves money can avoid sinning.” Compare Pro 28.20.

And he who pursues money will be led astray by it: The textual notes in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation cover only half of the problem in this line. The Greek manuscripts read “and he who pursues destruction will be filled with it.” There is general agreement that the Hebrew is to be preferred here. Both Rahlfs and Ziegler read a text emended from the Hebrew. It is considered so sure that Revised English Bible and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible read the emended text with no footnote. This Handbook believes that translators can get by without a note here. The two lines of this verse can be combined. In the following suggested models for this verse, the words underlined (for the translator’s convenience only) represent elements from the second line of the verse:

• Anyone who loves money and devotes himself to getting it is going to slip into sin.

• Anyone who loves money and spends all his time trying to get it is going to be led astray by it and as a result he will sin.

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.