Good News Translation combines these two verses. The Handbook suggests keeping them separate.
To Isaac also he gave the same assurance: Good News Translation is good here with “The Lord renewed that covenant [or, agreement] with Isaac.”
For the sake of Abraham his father: This means that the Lord renewed the covenant with Isaac out of loyalty to Abraham, out of faithfulness to his promises to Abraham. We could say “because he was faithful to Isaac’s father, Abraham.”
The blessing of all men and the covenant he made to rest upon the head of Jacob: Blessing here means “bring great benefits to.” A suggested approach for these two lines is “He renewed the covenant [or, agreement] again with Jacob, and repeated the promise that his descendants would be a blessing [or, bring great benefits] to the world [or, to everyone in the world].”
He acknowledged him with his blessings, and gave him his inheritance: Inheritance refers to the land of Israel (the man Jacob, also named Israel, often stands for the land). There are two problems here: the force of the Greek verb translated acknowledged, and who is meant by the pronoun in his blessings—God or Jacob. The usual meaning of the verb is “recognize.” If his blessings refers to God’s activity (rather than what Jacob has received), this could mean that God, while bestowing blessings on people, recognized Jacob, that is, singled him out for special blessing (was especially good and kind to him), by actually giving him the promised inheritance: the land. If so, we could translate these two lines as follows: “He chose him to receive a special blessing by giving him the land that would be his” or even “The Lord was especially good to Jacob by giving him the land that would be his.” His inheritance is literally “by inheritance” in Greek (see the Revised Standard Version footnote). Revised Standard Version is following the Hebrew and one Greek manuscript. New Revised Standard Version has the same rendering but eliminates the footnote.
He determined his portions, and distributed them among twelve tribes: Good News Translation is quite clear here. However, it is possible to combine these two lines with the previous two lines, since the clause “giving him the land that would be his” already contains the idea of ownership. An alternative model that combines the last four lines of verse 23 is “The Lord was especially good to Jacob by giving him land to be divided [or, distributed] among twelve tribes,” or in languages that do not have the passive voice, we may say “… land that he would later divide among twelve tribes.”
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.
