If integrated into the book of Daniel: 3.26

For the archaic pronouns used in verses 3-22, refer to the comments on Bar 2.11 and LetJer 6.

Blessed art thou … worthy of praise: In Greek God is described by two adjectives here, both of which say that God is worthy of something: praise, adoration, honor, veneration. The point here is not to make distinctions between near synonyms, but to heap up praise. Good News Translation renders these adjectives as a prose statement: “we praise and adore you,” which is a shift of focus, though not a harmful one. Another possibility is “you deserve all the praise and honor we can give.”

God of our fathers: Our fathers, of course, refers to all the Jewish ancestors, not just the previous generation and not just the male line (see Bar 1.16). In languages where of our fathers will give the impression that God belongs to their ancestors, we may translate “God whom our ancestors worshiped.”

Thy name is glorified for ever may be rendered “your name is forever glorious.” Good News Translation (and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible) states this as a wish: “may your name be honored forever.” In languages that do not have the passive voice, we may say something like “May people give honor to your name forever” or “May people always tell you, ‘You have a wonderful [or, glorious] name.’ ” The Greek allows for this clause to be a statement or a wish, and the translator is free to use whatever is appropriate in the target language.

New English Bible differs a little from Revised Standard Version in its rendering of this verse. That version reads “Blessed art thou, O Lord, the God of our fathers, thy name is worthy of praise and glorious for ever.” It applies “worthy of praise” to “thy name” rather than to God. Our Greek text, the Theodotion text, does not say this; the Septuagint does. In our text, God is worthy of honor and praise, and his name is forever glorious.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• You, Master, the God whom our ancestors served,
deserve all the praise and honor we can give;
and we should honor your name forever.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.