A man’s almsgiving is like a signet with the Lord: Each line of this verse presents a difficult image. Evidently both of these images worked in Hebrew, but they will present problems for most translators. Almsgiving means “giving to the poor” (see 3.30). The signet was a ring; on it was mounted a stone engraved with a mark of identification belonging to the person wearing the ring. Pressing the ring into wax or wet clay was like a signature, and like a signature, it vouched for a person’s good credit. The ring was precious, and a person did not want to lose it. In Jer 22.24 the king of Judah is compared to a signet ring on the Lord’s right hand (compare 49.11 and Hag 2.23). The idea in this line is that almsgiving, on the part of a person, is the mark of God—the Lord’s signature, the imprint of God on the donor. Good News Translation simply interprets the signet as a valuable object, and its translation is good: “When we give to the poor, the Lord considers it as precious as a valuable ring.” However, a rendering closer to the original imagery would be “When we give to the poor, we are acting for the Lord himself.”

And he will keep a person’s kindness like the apple of his eye: “The apple of the eye” is a very old English phrase referring to the pupil of the eye, which is what is meant here. People guard their eyesight as something very precious. In Psa 17.8 the psalmist begs God to protect him as he would his eyesight—the apple of his eye. (The phrase has shifted meaning in modern English; one might speak of a child or a sweetheart as the apple of one’s eye, not to indicate that the person is to be protected, but to indicate that one thinks the person is very special.) Good News Translation finds the idea of God protecting his eyesight too difficult, and shifts the focus from God’s eyesight to “life,” without saying whether it means God’s life or human life. Another way to render this line is “When we are kind to others, we are seeing them through the Lord’s eyes.” This is not exactly on target, but it is no farther off than Good News Translation, and is parallel with the suggestion made for the first line.

This verse is strange in its context. It seems to interrupt the thought flowing from verse 20 to verse 23. Perhaps, however, ben Sira means to say that although God sees every sin we commit (verse 20), he is also aware of our acts of kindness. An introductory “But” at the beginning of the verse might steer the reader or hearer in this direction. So we may translate it as follows:

• But when we give to the poor we are acting for the Lord himself, and when we are kind to others, we are seeing them through the Lord’s eyes.

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.