My son: The writer is speaking as a teacher would speak to a student; see the comments on 2.1.

Do not sow the furrows of injustice: Compare Pro 22.8; Hos 8.7; Gal 6.8. Good News Translation does not really misrepresent ben Sira’s thought here, but it does misunderstand the picture. Here it is the field that represents injustice, not the seed, and Contemporary English Version renders it correctly with “those who farm the fields of injustice.” Furrows are strips of earth that have been turned by the plow. We were warned in verse 2 to stay away from wrong, and this verse is an extension of it. It tells us to stay away from fields where only injustice can grow, fields that have been plowed and made ready for injustice. In other words, stay away from situations where nothing good can happen, where anything you do is only going to make things worse. If translators find this picture (metaphor) too difficult to translate, they may make the meaning clear with something like “Don’t get into situations where only bad things [or, injustice] can happen.”

And you will not reap a sevenfold crop: A rich (sevenfold) crop may come up in those fields where you’ve done your work, but it won’t be what you want; it will be only trouble, only wrong, only injustice. Good News Translation “you may reap a bigger harvest than you expect” is a clever rendition, but it would be better to say “you may reap a different kind of harvest from what you expect,” or we may get rid of the metaphor and say “You may receive far more trouble than you expect.” Good News Translation leaves unspoken that the harvest will be a bitter harvest of trouble.

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.