Like the morning star among the clouds, like the moon when it is full: Good News Translation begins a new sentence here, saying “He was like….” Ben Sira is describing a high point of worship in the Temple, when the High Priest, in all his fine garments, came out of the sanctuary. He compares the experience to looking in a cloudy sky on a dark night, and seeing a very bright star shining through a break in the clouds, or like looking into the light of the full moon. Another way to begin this verse is “Seeing him was like looking at….” If translators do not have a term for the morning star or “Venus,” they could say “a bright star.” An alternative model for this verse is:

• Seeing him was like looking at a bright star among the clouds or looking at the full moon.

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.