Translation commentary on Sirach 28:2

Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done, and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray: Compare Matt 6.14. Good News Translation casts this verse as a conditional sentence: “But if you forgive someone who has wronged you, your sins will be forgiven.” The Lord is the one who forgives the sins in the second clause. Even in languages with a passive voice, naming the Lord as the agent (doer of the action) here might make a nice parallel to the first verse. Contemporary English Version has a helpful model in the active voice:

• So forgive those who harm you,
and when you pray,
God [the Lord] will forgive you.

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.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted