O Lord Almighty, God of our fathers, of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob: God will be praised in these verses as mighty in power over the natural world but mighty also in his wrath and mercy to sinners. Lord Almighty may also be rendered “Lord who is All-Powerful” or “You, the All-Powerful Ruler” (see the comments on Bar 3.1). Fathers, whether referring specifically to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob or to others as well, is properly rendered “ancestors” (see the comments on Bar 1.15-18), and God of our fathers may also be rendered “God whom our ancestors worshiped.” An alternative model for the first two lines of this verse is “You, the one who rules with great power, are the God whom our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob worshiped.”

And of their righteous posterity: While the invocation to the God of the ancestors is found elsewhere (see 1 Chr 29.18), the mention of “their righteous descendants” (Good News Translation) implies that not all their descendants are righteous (compare Tob 13.9; Rom 9.6). Implicitly, Manasseh recognizes himself among the unrighteous and wishes to be brought into the number of the righteous, those worthy of the great ancestors. Righteous means “those who obeyed God” or “those who followed God’s Law.”

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

You, the one who rules with great power,
are the God whom our ancestors
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob worshiped.
You are also the God of their descendants
who obeyed your Law.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.