If you love to listen you will gain knowledge, and if you incline your ear you will become wise: These two lines are very close in meaning, and Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version have combined them. Love to listen is probably well translated as “willing to listen,” but New English Bible “enjoy listening” may be closer. Gain knowledge is literally “receive,” but obviously what someone receives or gains from listening is awareness and knowledge, so Good News Translation says “learn.” It is also obvious, though unsaid, that someone learns by listening to people and what they have to say. Some translators may find it necessary to make that clear; for example, the first line may be rendered “If you enjoy listening to people, you will gain knowledge.”

Incline your ear is an idiom for listening, or perhaps more specifically, paying attention to what is said (see the comments at 4.8). We may restate this verse as follows:

• If you enjoy listening to people and pay attention to what they say, you will learn from them and be wise.

The writer is not implying here that you should listen only to wise people or wise sayings, although that is certainly best (see the following verses). A person who is sharp and astute can profit from listening to anyone, even if what they learn is that someone is wrong.

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.