May he entrust to us his mercy!: The idea here is something like “May he be so good as to give us his mercy.” Good News Translation is good with “May he continue his mercy to us,” or we may say “May he never stop being merciful to us.”

And let him deliver us in our days!: The meaning of this line depends on the solution to a textual problem. Some Greek manuscripts read in our days, followed by both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. This would appear to be ben Sira’s prayer (or his grandson’s) that the Lord deliver Israel from its enemies during his lifetime. “May we live to see the Lord rescue Israel” would be the sense, although Good News Translation “rescue us in our time of need” is a reasonable way to translate it. Most manuscripts, however, read “in his days,” which gives a very different meaning. New English Bible follows this reading with “and in his own good time grant us deliverance.” Another way to say this is “and save us at the time he thinks right.” A translator can go either way here, but our feeling is that the Greek read by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation is more natural than the other reading, and so we recommend it to translators.

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.