This verse corresponds to Dan 9.15b.

The verse begins with three words in Greek, three verbs with a hammering, staccato effect. No conjunctions join them. Unfortunately, English loses this powerful effect by necessarily being wordy. Revised Standard Version renders the verbs as we have sinned, we have been ungodly, we have done wrong. After this the Lord is addressed (O Lord our God). Good News Translation moves the address to the Lord to the beginning of the verse, where it does no harm and has the positive advantage of connecting the petition here with the beginning of verse 11. Contemporary English Version is similar with “But we have sinned against you, our Lord God.”

For we have sinned, see the comments at Bar 1.13.

We have been ungodly: The Greek word translated been ungodly is not well rendered by “been unfaithful” (Good News Translation). It means something closer to “been irreligious” or “broken taboos”; New Jerusalem Bible “committed sacrilege” is good. The approach of New English Bible is interesting. It conveys something of the force of the three Greek verbs by translating them as nouns recited in a relentless sequence at the beginning of the verse: “by our sin, our godlessness, and our injustice we have broken all thy commandments, O Lord our God.” (The effect would have been even stronger without the connective “and.”) “Godlessness” is a noun that renders well the meaning of the Greek verb translated been ungodly.

It is likely that many translators will have difficulty translating been ungodly or “godlessness.” Other ways of expressing the clause we have been ungodly are “we have stopped worshiping you,” “we have not worshiped [or, served] you properly,” and even “we have habitually broken your rules.”

We have done wrong … against all thy ordinances may be rendered “we have disobeyed all your commands” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version).

For Lord our God, see the comments at Bar 1.10.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• O Lord, our God, we have sinned, we have not served you properly, and we have broken all your commands.

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.