He set his eye upon their hearts to show them the majesty of his works: To “set one’s eye upon” is a Hebrew idiom, which ordinarily means “take care of, look after” (Jer 39.12; 40.4), but which can be done for good (Jer 24.6) or evil (Amos 9.4). The “heart” was thought of as the organ of thinking. We believe that these lines can be interpreted to mean “He focused his attention [set his eye] on their minds [their hearts] to show them the greatness of his creation.” This can be structured to say “He was determined [set his eye] to make them think about [their hearts] the greatness of his creation.” A case can be made for Good News Translation‘s model, but we think the translator is better with the following renderings as models:

• He was determined to make people [or, us] think
about the majesty [or, greatness] of his creation [or, what he had made].

• He was determined to make people realize
how majestic his creation is.

Some manuscripts add verse 9. It should be included in a footnote at the end of verse 8 (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation).

And he gave them to boast of his marvels for ever: A slight change to Good News Translation provides this model for verse 9: “and he made them able to take pride forever in his marvelous deeds.”

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.