For it is better that your children should ask from you than that you should look to the hand of your sons: Look to the hand of your sons means asking your children for help (compare Psa 123.2). For this verse Good News Translation has a concise, matter-of-fact translation that avoids being wordy and repetitious. An alternative model is:

• It is better that your children ask you for help than for you to ask 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.