So too is the smith sitting by the anvil: For So too, see the comments on the previous verse. The smith is a person who works with metal. Here, as the next lines and the reference to the anvil indicate, we are talking about a “blacksmith” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version), one who works with iron, as opposed to someone doing fine work with gold or silver. The anvil is a block of iron or steel near the furnace. The blacksmith heats in the furnace the object he is working with, and then places it on the anvil, where he hammers it into the shape he wants. There is a problem in this line, but we must discuss it in connection with the next line. In some languages smith will have to be expressed as “person who works with iron” or “iron worker,” and sitting by the anvil may be rendered “standing near the place where he shapes the iron” (see the comments below).

Intent upon his handiwork in iron: This can be interpreted to mean that the blacksmith is “planning what he will make from a piece of iron” (Good News Translation) or that he is concentrating on the piece of iron he is actually working with. The next four lines certainly sound like the blacksmith is actually at work, so that we should say something like “thinking only about the piece of iron he is working with.” We favor this over Good News Translation. However, this brings up the problem in the first line, which has the blacksmith sitting. Blacksmiths stand to do their work. They have only a few seconds to hammer the iron before it has to go back into the furnace. To work the heavy metal they need the full force of a hammer blow, which can only be given from a standing position. Further, in a sitting position the blacksmith would be in danger of injuring himself or being burned by flying sparks. The blacksmith may sit to plan what he is going to make, but to make it he must stand. Perhaps ben Sira or his Greek translator did not know this. But it is possible to take the Greek verb translated sitting as meaning “at one’s post.” From there it is a short step to translating “standing.” This is in fact what New American Bible does say in its rendering of the first line: “So with the smith standing near his anvil.” Good News Translation, whether purposely or not, avoids the problem by saying “It is the same with the blacksmith at his anvil.” This is all that needs to be said, but if the man’s position is described, we believe it should be “standing.” A possible alternative model for the first two lines is “It is the same with the iron worker standing near to the anvil [or, place where he shapes the iron], and thinking only about the piece of iron he is working with.”

The translator should remember the purpose of these paragraphs about the plowman, the jeweler, the blacksmith, and next worker, the potter. The point is that all of these occupations require so much time that the workers have none left for study, which they need to become wise, or gain knowledge. This is the reason for our wording “thinking only about the piece of iron he is working with” here.

The breath of the fire melts his flesh: The breath of the fire refers to the heat coming from the furnace in the blacksmith’s shop. Melts his flesh is of course a figure of speech, an overstatement for effect. In English it sounds peculiar, however, and translations say something like “sears his skin” (Good News Translation), “shrivels his flesh” (New English Bible), or “scorches his skin” (New Jerusalem Bible).

And he wastes away in the heat of the furnace: Revised Standard Version is reading an emended text. We prefer to stay with the Greek text, which is literally “and he struggles with the heat of the furnace” (New Revised Standard Version). This line could easily be combined with the previous line by saying “He has to deal with the heat from the furnace, which scorches his skin,” or simply “He has to contend with the scorching heat from the furnace.”

He inclines his ear to the sound of the hammer is literally “the sound of the hammer renews his ear.” Revised Standard Version is reading an emended text. We prefer a different emendation as read by Good News Translation: “The clanging of the hammer deafens him.” It would have been easy for the Greek translator or a Hebrew scribe to mistake the Hebrew word for “deafen” for a word meaning “renew.” It will help some translators to include the information that he is using the hammer on the piece of iron; for example, “As he hits the iron with a hammer, the clanging noise deafens him.” Contemporary English Version makes this clear with “going deaf from the noise as he hammers the red-hot iron.”

And his eyes are on the pattern of the object: This means that he focuses his attention on the shape of the object he is making. So Good News Translation says “as he carefully watches the object he is working take shape.”

He sets his heart on finishing his handiwork, and he is careful to complete its decoration: For sets his heart and is careful, refer to the comments on verse 26. Complete its decoration is better translated by Good News Translation as “complete his task,” but even better by New Jerusalem Bible as “apply the finishing touches.” Little work done by a blacksmith would involve decoration, but a conscientious workman would want to make sure that what he produced was good work. That is what is meant. So for these two lines we may say “He will work hard late at night to complete his task and ensure that what he is making is good.”

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.