No one like Enoch has been created on earth, for he was taken up from the earth: Good News Translation “walked the face of the earth” is an English idiom; Contemporary English Version “has ever been born” will be simpler. The translator’s aim here is to find a striking way of saying that Enoch was unique among all human beings because God took him directly into heaven (see 44.16; Gen 5.24; Heb 11.5). Here is a possible alternative model for the second line: “because the Lord took him from earth to heaven.” This is what is meant by for he was taken up from the earth. Ben Sira evidently sees Enoch’s experience as somehow different from Elijah’s ascent to heaven in a fiery whirlwind (48.9).

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.