Good News Translation makes a paragraph break here since the discourse switches from third person to second person. This continues through the next verse.

Keep strict watch over a headstrong daughter: This line is exactly the same in Greek as 26.10a. See the comments there.

Lest she make you a laughingstock to your enemies: Good News Translation expresses Lest as “If you don’t….” A laughingstock is something or someone people laugh at. “Make a fool of you” (Good News Translation) is a good English equivalent for make you a laughingstock, but we may also say “embarrass you [or, make you lose face].” An alternative model for the first two lines is “Watch your daughter closely if she always wants to have her own way. Otherwise [or, If you don’t] she may embarrass you [or, make you lose face] and your enemies will laugh at you,” or we may reverse the order of the clauses and say “If your daughter always wants to have her own way, you must watch her closely. Otherwise….”

A byword in the city and notorious among the people, and put you to shame before the great multitude: The Greek of the first line here is not clear (see the Revised Standard Version footnote), and the two Hebrew manuscripts offer two different readings. Revised Standard Version follows one of the Hebrew manuscripts, while New Revised Standard Version adopts the other one with “a byword in the city and the assembly of the people.” In our judgment Revised Standard Version‘s translation is reasonable; Good News Translation follows it, combining its two parts into “You will be a constant joke to everyone in town.” Good News Translation then adds to “a constant joke” the phrase, “a public disgrace,” which translates the last line well. In spite of the textual problems, in our judgment this way of handling these lines does not require a footnote.

An alternative model for this verse is:

• If your daughter always wants to have her own way, you must watch her closely. Otherwise [or, If you don’t], she may embarrass you [or, make you lose face] and your enemies will laugh at you. In fact, everyone in town will talk about it constantly, causing you terrible disgrace [or, making you lose much face].

At this point the Hebrew adds two lines, which are translated in Good News Translation as “Make sure that her room has no windows or any place where she can look out to the entrance of the house” (similarly New Revised Standard Version). We suggest omitting this, but translators may make their own decision. It fits the context and is probably original. Ben Sira’s grandson-translator may have omitted it on purpose because it seemed too extreme even for him. It has never been part of the Greek or Latin tradition. If translators wish to add these two lines, Contemporary English Version provides a good model:

• Don’t let her bedroom window
look down on the front door,
and a room without a window
is even better.

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.