The nations will incur his wrath: There is a textual problem here. Most Greek manuscripts read literally “just as the nations will inherit his anger” (so Rahlfs’ text). But two manuscripts, as well as the Latin, read “just as his anger will inherit the nations” (so Ziegler’s text). In Hebrew “his anger” is the subject; the line there reads “Thus his anger will drive out nations.” The same Hebrew verb may mean “drive out/dispossess” or “inherit,” and the Greek translator may well have misunderstood the reference. “Dispossess” may be the required sense here; let us go on to the next line.

Just as he turns fresh water into salt: Compare Psa 107.33-34, which may refer to God’s punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19.24-28); see also Deut 29.22-23. God’s anger thus has the opposite effect of his blessing (verse 22). Whereas his blessing brings life back to parched ground, his anger is like fresh water (literally “waters”) becoming a salty wasteland or desert (the meaning of the Greek noun for salt). The Greek text does not speak of well-watered ground, only “waters,” but the Hebrew does (the word is used of Sodom in Gen 13.10), and perhaps the Greek translator meant to imply it. In Genesis God dispossessed the people of Sodom and Gomorrah in a radical way—he destroyed them and turned their land into a salty waste.

We now are able to suggest the following approach to verses 22-23:

• When the Lord blesses us, it is like water covering dry ground,
bringing it back to life.
When he is angry, he will destroy nations,
like that well-watered land he turned into a salt desert.

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.