Why is any day better than another, when all the daylight in the year is from the sun?: The better days, as verses 8-9 make clear, are the religious holidays. Good News Translation does well to translate “holier” rather than better. New English Bible is also good with “more important.” Good News Translation‘s second line, “even though the same sun rises on every day of the year,” rewords the original text a lot, but makes the point in natural English. A better model might be this slight modification of New English Bible: “even though every day in the year receives its light from the sun.” Another possibility is “even though each day of the year depends on the sun for light.”

An alternative model for the verse is:

• Why are some days more important than others, even though every day in the year receives its light from the sun?

Contemporary English Version also provides a helpful model by reordering the lines as follows:

• Each day of the year
depends on the sun for light,
so why are some days
more important than others?

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.