Samuel, beloved by his Lord: Good News Translation makes this into a short but effective opening sentence. There is no reason, however, not to say “Samuel was loved by his Lord.” However, in languages that do not have the passive voice, it would not be advisable to say “His Lord loved Samuel,” but rather “The Lord loved Samuel.”

A prophet of the Lord, established the kingdom and anointed rulers over his people: A prophet of the Lord may be rendered “a spokesperson for the Lord” or even “a person who proclaimed the Lord’s words.” For prophet see the comments on the first paragraph of the Prologue. Good News Translation makes it clear that when Samuel established the kingdom and anointed rulers he was doing it “As the Lord’s prophet.” Established the kingdom means that he changed the political system in which judges had ruled to one in which kings ruled Israel. These two lines appear to refer to the same act. So we may translate “As the Lord’s prophet he appointed kings to rule over Israel.” Good News Translation says “appointed” rather than anointed since the important thing here is not the pouring of the anointing oil but the fact that he installed kings in office (Saul and David).

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.