As the palate tastes the kinds of game: Game here refers to wild animals that are hunted for food. Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation miss the point of this line. Ben Sira was a Jew, and under Jewish law one does not eat wild game, meat from animals that have been hunted, because they are not slaughtered in the way provided for in the Law. He is saying here that a person can tell by tasting meat whether it is wild game, and thus forbidden. You can tell that something is wrong. So we may translate this line as “The tongue can tell from the taste of meat if it is from a wild animal.”

So an intelligent mind detects false words: Just as the tongue can tell if food is acceptable, a keen mind can tell if people are telling the truth. If you are smart, you can tell that something is wrong.

An alternative model for this verse is:

• Just as the tongue can tell from the taste of meat if it is from a wild animal, so a sharp [or, smart] mind can tell when people are lying.

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.