Fill Zion with the celebration of thy wondrous deeds, and thy temple with thy glory: For Zion see the comments on 24.10. The phrase the celebration of … wondrous deeds translates a single Greek noun, which refers to the recitation or recounting of a god’s virtues, and the word may be rendered “the telling about … marvelous deeds.” Instead of this word, the Hebrew reads “majesty,” which New Revised Standard Version and New American Bible prefer. It is possible here to translate the Greek as “majesty,” in light of the Hebrew; the Greek translator could have seen fit to translate the Hebrew word with this Greek word. However, Good News Translation “hymns of praise” is a possible translation for either word. We regard this as a translational matter. For the whole verse we could say:

• Fill your Temple on Mount Zion with people singing songs of praise, telling of your marvelous deeds.

None of the Greek manuscripts, as the footnotes in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation indicate, read temple; they all read “people.” Temple is obviously correct, however. It involves one mistaken letter in Greek, and it is the reading of the Hebrew. This is so certain that the Handbook does not think a textual footnote is necessary.

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.