A man may be wise to his own advantage: The Greek phrase translated to his own advantage is the same as translated “to himself” in verse 19. This verse then seems to be talking about a person who is unlike the figure of verse 19, one who “is wise in the conduct of his own life” (New English Bible). In our opinion Good News Translation has misunderstood this verse. An alternative model for the first line is “Someone may make wise choices in his life,” or even “… know how to manage his own affairs.”

And the fruits of his understanding may be trustworthy on his lips: There are two textual problems in this line. Instead of trustworthy, some Greek manuscripts read “praiseworthy” (so New Revised Standard Version); neither is reflected in the Hebrew. The Hebrew reads “and the fruit of his understanding is on his back.” “On his back” is legitimately interpreted to mean “on his body.” Ziegler emends the Greek text to read “on his body” instead of on his lips (literally “on his mouth”; the two words could be confused easily in Greek), and further omits trustworthy (or “praiseworthy”), so that his Greek reads the same as the Hebrew.

If trustworthy and on his lips are accepted, this verse can be read in a negative way, as in Good News Translation. New Jerusalem Bible is similar to Good News Translation with “Another considers himself wise and proclaims his intellectual conclusions as certainties.” But New English Bible, reading the same text, has “If a man is wise in the conduct of his own life, his good sense can be trusted when he speaks.” Another way of saying this is “If a person knows how to manage his own affairs, you can depend upon the advice that he gives you.”

We suggest reading on his lips with the Greek manuscripts and “praiseworthy” with some of the Greek manuscripts. We could then translate the verse as follows:

• If a person knows how to manage his own affairs, people will praise him for having good sense.

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.