He sees and recognizes that their end will be evil: Most translations take the clause that their end will be evil as the object of both sees and recognizes. Good News Translation takes another, and legitimate, course in supplying “us” as the object of sees: “He looks at us….” This is appropriate to the context, and recommended. The Greek noun translated end is built on a root meaning “turn.” It is possible to interpret their end will be evil to mean that people are inclined toward evil (so Luís Alonso Schökel). But the word for end often has the meaning of a climactic, final point. It is used for the ending of a drama, and it is used to refer to death. It surely has the meaning of death here, so Revised English Bible renders their end will be evil as “the harsh fate in store for them,” and New Jerusalem Bible has “how wretched their end is.” Good News Translation “we are doomed to die” carries in the word “doomed” both the component of evil and that of finality. Contemporary English Version “we are condemned to die” assumes a subject or doer of the action, namely God. However, to say that the Lord knows that “he has condemned us to die” sounds strange. We recommend the following model for the whole line: “He looks at us and knows very well that we must face death [or, that death awaits us].”

Therefore he grants them forgiveness in abundance: This line functions in the same way as verse 11, which was also introduced by the connector therefore. Good News Translation marks this echo of verse 11 by translating therefore the same way in both verses with “that is why.” The Good News Translation phrase “so willing to forgive” (Contemporary English Version “eager to forgive”) catches the meaning of forgiveness in abundance.

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.