Their iniquities are not hidden from him: Compare verse 15b.

And all their sins are before the Lord: Compare verse 15a.

In languages that do not have the passive voice, the following renderings are possible models for this verse:

• They [or, We] cannot hide their [or, our] sins from the Lord; he can see all the evil things they [or, we] do.

• Whenever we sin, we cannot stop the Lord from seeing what we do. He always sees our sins.

Some manuscripts add verse 21. It should be included in a footnote at the end of verse 20 (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation).

But the Lord, who is gracious and knows his creatures, has neither left nor abandoned them, but spared them: Good News Translation translates the relative clause who is gracious and knows his creatures as an independent clause, and interprets the rest of this sentence as a result clause introduced by “so.” It also combines the two synonymous verbs, left and abandoned, into one. Another possible model for verse 21 is:

• But the Lord is merciful and knows what we are like; so he never deserts [or, abandons] us, but spares 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.