He whose service is pleasing to the Lord will be accepted is literally “One serving in good will will be received.” This line is highly ambiguous. The Hebrew is unclear and cannot help. The phrase “in good will” may be taken to modify “serving” or “will be received.” If it modifies “serving” (as seems likely), it is not clear whose good will is involved, that of the Lord or the doer of the deed. Revised Standard Version takes it to mean the Lord’s good will (He whose service is pleasing to the Lord). Good News Translation takes it to mean the doer of the deed (“Serve the Lord willingly”). A further ambiguity is that it is not clear who is being served, the Lord (the words to the Lord are supplied; they are not in the Greek) or another person, one’s neighbor. In our judgment this last problem should be resolved in favor of “the Lord,” since the Greek verb for “serving” implies that one is attending, waiting on, or serving a superior, whether God, other gods, or a person. So then we are talking about serving the Lord. But it is pointless, almost redundant, to say that serving the Lord is pleasing to the Lord. This then means that the phrase “in good will” more likely refers to the good will of the one serving. Good News Translation is then correct on this point, but it does not provide a good model. The problem is that Good News Translation casts the line in the second person. This misses an important point. The one who serves the Lord willingly is Israel. It is Israel whose prayer is spoken of in the next line. This becomes clear in verse 19. For this line we could say “The Lord will accept the people who serve him willingly.”

And his prayer will reach to the clouds: This of course is a figurative way of saying that his prayer will reach the Lord in heaven. The clouds could be rendered “heaven” or even “the Lord,” or a translator could work with a figure of speech, whether this one or an equivalent. Good News Translation has made a slight modification, with “the skies” instead of the clouds. The reason for this is that most modern people know that the sky is infinite, but that clouds are fairly close to the earth. To say that one’s prayers reach the clouds seems to say that they don’t get very far, but the first line of the following verse may take care of this.

An alternative model for this verse is:

• The Lord will accept the people who serve him willingly, and their prayers will reach to the skies.

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.