He will serve his parents as his masters: Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version shift the focus from the parents as masters to the children as slaves. Both images are in the Greek; masters occurs as a noun, and the verb serve gives the idea of “slave.” This is really what the author is saying, harsh as it sounds. There are early rabbinic sayings to the same effect. But the author is not saying that the children are slaves. Children are to obey their parents in the way that slaves obeyed their masters, that is, faithfully and without questions. Perhaps this can be worked into the translation by saying “Obey your parents without question, as if you were their slave.”

As Revised Standard Version indicates in its footnote, some manuscripts have another line at the beginning of this verse. It would be appropriate for translators to also include a note. Such a note might read: “Some manuscripts begin this verse with the line Whoever honors the Lord will respect his father.”

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.