For a man’s glory comes from honoring his father is literally “For a man’s glory [is] from his father’s honor.” The text does not really say that your own honor comes from the honor you show to your father. It says that your own honor derives from the honor your father is shown, the regard in which he is held, by anyone. It follows on the thought of verse 10. You cannot increase your own reputation by tearing down your father’s, because it is from his honor that yours derives. New Revised Standard Version has it right: “The glory of one’s father is one’s own glory.” Revised English Bible is also correct with “A man gets honour from his father’s honour.” Good News Translation, like Revised Standard Version, misses this, but Good News Translation could be altered like this: “Your own honor comes from the respect shown to your father,” “Your own honor comes from the respect that people show to your father,” or even “For if people respect your father, they will also respect you.”

And it is a disgrace for children not to respect their mother: In Greek the two lines of this verse are much more nearly parallel than in the translation of either Good News Translation or Revised Standard Version. Literally this line reads “and a mother [held] in dishonor [is] a disgrace to the children.” Just as you get honor when your father is honored, you get disgrace when your mother is held in dishonor. The translation suggested above for the first line could be continued by saying “Your own honor comes from the respect shown to your father, just as you are disgraced when your mother is not respected.” The two lines of the verse are so nearly parallel that we could combine father and mother as “parents,” as discussed in verse 9. Alternative models that do this are:

• Your own honor comes from the honor people show your parents, just as you suffer disgrace when people do not respect them.

• When people honor your parents, you should feel honored also. Would you not feel ashamed if people did not respect them?

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.