I have hated many things, but none to be compared to him: The author is talking about things he has hated, not people. The particular kind of person in view here, the person who betrays a trusting friend, the double-crosser, is chief among those many things. Good News Translation says “There is nothing in the world that I hate as much as a person like that.” Other possible models are “I hate people like them more than anything else” (Contemporary English Version) and “More than any other thing I hate such a person.”

Even the Lord will hate him: The literal future here is better expressed as a present tense, as in Good News Translation. While the Greek can be read even the Lord will hate him, we recommend that translators follow Good News Translation‘s equally justifiable rendering “and the Lord hates him too.”

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.