Do not be jealous of the wife of your bosom: The wife of your bosom is a Hebrew idiom for “the wife you love” (Good News Translation; compare Deut 13.6). The way this line is phrased in both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation could mistakenly mean “Don’t be jealous of the wife you love, but you may be jealous of the wife you don’t love.” Since in some societies, men might have several wives or concubines, it will be helpful to reorder the elements of this line as follows: “You love your wife, so don’t act jealous toward her” (similarly Contemporary English Version).

And do not teach her an evil lesson to your own hurt: This refers to jealousy. If the husband is overly jealous of his wife, it only teaches his wife to be the same way. Di Lella comments that “jealousy is one of the few vices from which one derives no (apparent) benefit, but only evil” (1987; page 218). Jealousy may be groundless, but it has a way of producing that which it fears. Contemporary English Version‘s model is helpful: “that will only invite her to hurt you.”

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.