With all kinds of living beings he covered its surface: Living beings refers here to animal life, not plant life. Animal life here includes fish and birds—anything that breathes. We are talking about the fifth day of creation (Gen 1.20-23). Translators need to find a general term (if such a term exists in their language) that means “living things,” which will cover all types of creatures.

And to it they return: It refers to the earth, not the surface (literally “face”) of the earth. All animal creatures must die, and Good News Translation inserts the relative clause “that must die” to make this clear. However, putting this statement in a relative clause somewhat weakens it. It might be stronger as a separate statement by rendering the whole verse as follows:

• He covered the earth with all kinds of creatures—
and they all must die and return to the earth.

Good News Translation says “dust” in the second line. This is not what the Greek literally says, but the idea of “returning to dust” as an idiom for dying is familiar to English-speaking people from the traditional rendering of Gen 3.19. We may say “dust, earth, soil, dirt,” whatever is appropriate, but the translator should bear in mind the wording of Gen 2.7; 3.19, and the following verse, Sir 17.1.

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.