But the Lord will never give up his mercy: The Lord is merciful now and will continue to be. Good News Translation has “But the Lord will always be merciful,” and Contemporary English Version says “But the Lord will continue to have mercy.”

Nor cause any of his works to perish translates the reading of most Greek manuscripts, not the reading adopted in both editions of the Greek text, which are based on the Hebrew. The Hebrew is literally “and he will not let any of his words fall to the ground.” Translators should follow the Hebrew here; Good News Translation may serve as a model.

He will never blot out the descendants of his chosen one, nor destroy the posterity of him who loved him: These two lines are parallel and synonymous. The chosen one, the one who loved him, is David (verse 8). Good News Translation is helpful in identifying David at this point. In some languages it will be helpful to restructure these lines slightly as follows: “The Lord chose David, and he in turn loved the Lord. So the Lord will never destroy his descendants.”

So he gave a remnant to Jacob, and to David a root of his stock: Here Jacob represents the nation of Israel; Good News Translation customarily translates this use of Jacob as “Israel.” The remnant and root of his stock, in these two parallel and synonymous lines, refer to David’s family line. A possible model for these lines is “And so, the Lord has kept alive a few of David’s descendants for the sake of Israel” (Contemporary English Version). Or we could say “And so, for the sake of Israel, the Lord has kept alive a few of David’s descendants.”

There is another way to understand the parallels in these lines. It is possible that his chosen one is parallel to Jacob, and him who loved him parallel to David. In this case the last four lines of this verse are saying “He will never completely destroy his chosen people Israel, nor the descendants of David, who loved him.” This is perfectly possible, and translators who prefer it may use it. The Handbook, however, has a slight preference for the approach found in Good News Translation.

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.