Therefore the storehouses are opened: This is a poetic way of referring to the origin of such happenings as rain, snow, and hail. Compare Deut 28.12; Job 38.22; Jer 51.16. Good News Translation does not change this image, but adds “storerooms of the sky” to clarify it. In languages that do not have the passive voice, translators may say “He opens up the storerooms of the sky,” or even “He opens up the places in the sky where he stores things.”

And the clouds fly forth like birds: In English it is awkward to speak of clouds flying. Good News Translation has “the clouds roll out like flying birds,” which is still a bit awkward. How do flying birds roll out? The image could perhaps be sharpened by picturing the birds as taking to flight. The clouds, rolling out of the storerooms of the sky, are like a flock of birds roosting in a tree or eating grain in a field, that suddenly rises and flies. So an alternative model for this verse is:

• He opens up the places in the sky where he stores things,
and the clouds fly out just like birds.

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.