Do not follow your inclination and strength: Your inclination (literally “your soul”) refers to what you want or what you want to do. Following your strength refers to acting on your wishes.

Walking according to the desires of your heart refers to doing whatever you please.

Good News Translation has done a good job of restructuring this verse, but another possible model is:

• Don’t think you are strong and clever enough to get anything you want.

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.