Therefore from the beginning I have been convinced, and have thought this out and left it in writing: This verse obviously does not fit well into a hymn. That is why Good News Translation sets the verse aside in parentheses. An easier way to handle this would be to make verses 32-35 a conclusion in prose, just as verses 12-15 are a prose introduction to the hymn in Good News Translation. These verses offer ben Sira’s own interpretation of the hymn he has written. In verse 31 the author has finished writing about all sorts of bad things. But this seems in conflict with what he started out saying in verse 16 (from the beginning refers to the beginning of the hymn), that all God’s works are good. Here he explains himself. In verse 33 he restates that everything God does is good. No one can say that the threatening things in verses 28-30 are bad—because all things, even those things, have their purpose, and each one is “good in its proper place” (verse 34 in Good News Translation). Verse 35 repeats what ben Sira told us to do in the prose introduction to the hymn (verses 12-15): praise the Lord.

To open the paragraph consisting of verses 32-35, we suggest something like this:

• I have thought carefully about all this, and I am convinced that what I wrote at the beginning of the hymn is true:….

Another possibility is to interpret from the beginning as referring to the beginning of the author’s search for wisdom, in which case the paragraph might begin as follows:

• I have been convinced of this since I first began my studies; I have thought it through, and now I have put it in writing.

Good News Translation‘s footnote on this verse is unnecessary and may be ignored.

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.