One confirms the good things of the other: The verb “completes” in Good News Translation is inappropriate, since it contradicts the previous line. The idea is that every thing in creation is itself good, and confirms (or reinforces, supports, complements, even echoes) everything else that is good. Another way to translate this line is “Everything says ‘Amen’ [or, ‘Well done’] to the goodness of everything else.”

And who can have enough of beholding his glory?: Good News Translation is good here. Compare New Jerusalem Bible: “Who could ever grow tired of gazing at his glory?” Notice that Good News Translation says “this splendor” rather than “his splendor.” We agree with this. In the Greek text it is not clear that the pronoun here refers to the Lord rather than to creation. But in Hebrew the reference is clearly to the splendor of creation. Here the Greek should be interpreted in light of the Hebrew.

An alternative model for this verse is:

• Everything says “Amen” [or, “Well done”] to the goodness of everything else.
Who could ever grow tired or gazing at the splendor [or, beauty] of creation?

The last line is a rhetorical question. In languages that do not have rhetorical questions, this line may be rendered “No one will ever get tired from gazing at the splendor of what has been created [or, what the Lord has created].”

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.