As in us thou hast been sanctified before them: The Gentiles encountered God’s holiness in the Jewish people. Sanctified or “holy” (Good News Translation) is always a difficult word to translate. When applied to Jerusalem, for example, as being God’s “holy city,” it simply means that it is set apart for God; it belongs to him. In the case of this present verse, “holy” seems to refer to God’s moral transcendence, his moral purity. So an alternative model for this line is “You have used us to show them how morally pure you are.”

So in them be thou magnified before us: Here ben Sira asks that he and his people encounter God’s glory in the defeat of their enemy.

Good News Translation does well with this verse. New Revised Standard Version is very similar, and perhaps a bit better:

• As you have used us to show your holiness to them,
so use them to show your glory to us.

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.