So if a man fasts for his sins, and goes again and does the same things: The connector So is better translated “In the same way.” Contemporary English Version provides a helpful model for this line with “Suppose you go without eating to show sorrow for your sins and then commit the same sins again.”

Who will listen to his prayer? And what has he gained by humbling himself?: Good News Translation reverses the order of these rhetorical questions; this is possible but certainly not necessary. The translator may place first whichever seems more natural. Who will listen to his prayer? may be rendered “Will the Lord listen to your prayers?” Good News Translation interprets humbling himself to refer to “going without food”; this small shift of focus is acceptable. The implied answers to these questions are that God is not going to listen to the prayers of this person, and that nothing has been accomplished by the rigors of fasting. Some translators may wish to express them as statements by saying “The Lord is not going to listen to your prayers, and you have accomplished nothing by denying yourself food.” Compare Isa 58.3-7; Jer 14.12.

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.