The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds: The word humble here does not mean modest and unassuming. It refers to someone who is lowly, weak, powerless, who is praying that justice be done, as the last line of the verse makes clear. The humble here is singular, and Revised Standard Version intends it that way, although it is awkward English. Good News Translation “a humble person” again misses the point that we are not talking about any person who is humble. We are talking about Israel. We could translate “a defenseless people.” A model will be offered below. The Greek verb rendered pierces does not imply violent action. The prayer reached the clouds in the previous line, and here it “goes through” them on its way upward to God. Compare Lam 3.44.

And he will not be consoled until it reaches the Lord: This line is so ambiguous it is hard to offer a literal translation to work from. Until it reaches is the first clause of this line in Greek; its subject is not clear, and the Lord is supplied as the object. As the Revised Standard Version footnote shows, the clause can be translated “until the Lord draws near.” There is something to be said for this, but we do not recommend it. A bigger problem involves the clause he will not be consoled. The subject is not clear, nor is the meaning of the Greek verb here. Revised Standard Version offers a reasonable understanding of the Greek, with the usual meaning of the verb. He refers to the humble person of the previous line. The meaning of this line and the previous two lines would be that the humble person who prays will not find comfort until his prayer reaches the clouds, goes through the clouds, and reaches God. However, instead of he will not be consoled, the Hebrew reads “it will not rest,” meaning the prayer will not rest until it reaches God. It is possible for the Greek verb to mean this, and this is what Good News Translation intends by “[the prayer] keeps on going” (similarly Contemporary English Version “will go up beyond the clouds”). New Revised Standard Version reads “it will not rest.” Neither Good News Translation nor New Revised Standard Version employs a footnote referring to the Hebrew, since they are reading the Greek, but understanding it in light of the Hebrew. We recommend this approach, although we think “will not rest” is better than “keeps on going” since it seems to give life to the prayer, which becomes active (“will not rest”) rather than passive, like a ball thrown in the air (“keeps on going”).

He will not desist until the Most High visits him: It is not clear whether the subject of will not desist is the humble person who prays or the prayer itself. In Hebrew the prayer is clearly the subject, and again Good News Translation (“where it stays”) and New Revised Standard Version (“it will not desist”) interpret the Greek in light of the Hebrew. Again we recommend this approach. Good News Translation has combined the two references to God in this line and the previous one into “the Lord Most High,” and therefore can refer to God by the pronoun “he” in this verse. For the Most High, see 4.10. Good News Translation translates visits (him is not in the Greek) as “answers [the prayer].” For until the Most High visits him, New English Bible is good with “until the Most High intervenes.”

And does justice for the righteous, and executes judgment may be rendered “by deciding justly for his people and punishing the guilty.” This is what the humble people pray for. (This line is verse 22a in Ziegler’s Greek text.)

Translators could use the following model for this verse:

• When a defenseless people prays, that prayer goes straight through the clouds and never rests until it reaches the Lord Most High, and there it stays until he answers by deciding justly for his people and punishing the guilty.

Those who wish to ignore the Hebrew and simply translate the Greek could do so like this:

• The prayer of a defenseless people goes straight through the clouds. That nation will not find any comfort and will not stop praying until the Lord comes and answers the prayer, seeing that justice is done and that the guilty are punished.

Good News Translation‘s paragraph break here is appropriate but optional.

And the Lord will not delay: The prayer that has risen to the Lord (verse 17) is not going to have to wait long. Good News Translation expresses this line in positive terms: “And the Lord will act quickly.”

Neither will he be patient with them: A problem here is that the pronoun them is not identified. It presumably refers to the “wicked people” (Good News Translation) who are mentioned in the next few lines, but nothing in the context prepares us for this shift from attention on the helpless person (verses 13-17) to a focus on the wicked people of the world. Some versions, like Good News Translation, supply something like “wicked people.” New Jerusalem Bible understands this line in a different way, so that them refers to the people who pray for justice: “nor will he be dilatory [slow to act] on their behalf.” A problem with this is that, at least up to this point, the suffering party has been spoken of in the singular, not the plural. There is also a textual solution. In Hebrew there is no problem; no them is mentioned. It reads “and like a warrior will not be patient” (New Revised Standard Version; similarly New American Bible, Luís Alonso Schökel). We favor this approach. We can therefore suggest the following rendering for this line and the next one:

• Like a brave soldier in battle, * he will not rest until he has destroyed all those unmerciful people.
* Hebrew Like a brave soldier in battle; Greek does not have these words.

We suggest adding “in battle” to clarify the picture. We do not ordinarily associate soldiers with crushing the loins of the unmerciful and the other actions described in the rest of this verse. And soldiers do not spend all their time in combat. The point of the comparison is that God will not rest until these things are done; he will fight as relentlessly against evil as a soldier engaged in a fierce battle. We use “brave soldier” to translate one Hebrew word.

In the last four lines of this vers, the unmerciful, the nations, the insolent, and the unrighteous all refer to Israel’s enemies, her oppressors.

Till he crushes the loins of the unmerciful: This line refers to making unmerciful people powerless. Compare Deut 33.11.

And repays vengeance on the nations: God punishes the nations for their injustice. Ben Sira’s grandson and translator has in mind injustices that the Gentile nations have committed against the Jews (the Hebrew does not mention the nations). It would not be going too far to translate the nations as “Israel’s enemies.” So we may translate the whole line as “and takes revenge on Israel’s enemies by crushing them [or, breaking their power].” (This line begins verse 23 in Ziegler’s Greek text.)

Till he takes away the multitude of the insolent: Israel had many enemies, but God removes Israel from danger. These enemies were insolent because they presumed to oppose the Lord’s people. An alternative model for this line is “until he completely wipes out those proud enemies.”

And breaks the scepters of the unrighteous: A scepter is a staff held in the hand of a king to represent royal authority. To “break the scepter” is to destroy a king’s authority.

A model for this whole verse is provided at the end of the comments on the next verse.

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.