If you will, you can keep the commandments: This is the center of the section, and we could not hope to find a clearer statement of personal responsibility. The very simplicity of Good News Translation‘s translation accents this: “If you want to, you can keep the Lord’s commands.” Plain language is effective here. There is no reason to think that commandments here refers only to the Ten Commandments. The whole Law is meant. Good News Translation‘s addition of “Lord’s” with “commands” is helpful. Contemporary English Version‘s model for this line is also good: “You are able to obey his Law if you really want to.”
And to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice: The Greek of this line is cryptic. The entire verse reads literally “If you wish, you will keep commandments and faith to do satisfactions.” The key to understanding the second line is the Greek noun for “satisfactions.” It means “good will, pleasure,” and as Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation and other versions understand it, it refers here to our own good will, so that whether or not we keep faith is a matter of our own choice. However, it is now well established that this noun in Jewish literature often refers to God’s will or good pleasure, not our own. The most familiar occurrence of this noun is in the song of the angels at Jesus’ birth (Luke 2.14). In our opinion, the usual interpretation of this line is mistaken. New Jerusalem Bible is on the right track with “and so be faithful to his will.” This is also consistent with the Hebrew text. A model for the verse based on this interpretation is:
• If you [really] want to, you can keep the Lord’s commandments and faithfully do what he wants.
Translators who are reluctant to follow the Handbook’s recommendation here will find a good model of the traditional interpretation 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.