Let nothing hinder you from paying a vow promptly: Compare Eccl 5.4-5. Let nothing hinder you represents the Greek more accurately than Good News Translation “keep it,” although Good News Translation has an acceptable shift of focus. A vow is a solemn promise made to God. Promptly is not exactly right; the meaning of the Greek word here is “at the appropriate time.” This word is used in the Greek text of Psa 104.27 (103.27 in the Septuagint), where Revised Standard Version renders it “in due season.” The whole line may be rendered “When the time comes to keep a promise you have made to the Lord, don’t let anything stop you from doing it.”

And do not wait until death to be released from it: An American Translation translates this line literally, saying “And do not wait till you die to be justified.” The agent of the passive verb “to be justified” is God, who “justifies” the sinner, that is, makes the sinner right with him. Compare Rom 2.13, where Good News Translation supplies the word “God,” and translates “For it is not by hearing the Law that people are put right with God [justified], but by doing what the Law commands.” Our author’s idea is that we are justified—put right with God—by fulfilling the vows we have made, and he urges us not to wait until the time of death to get around to fulfilling them. Good News Translation renders “to be justified” as “to set things straight” (similarly New Jerusalem Bible), which shifts the focus from God as agent to the person, but the meaning is approximately the same. The most important thing here is that this “justification” depends on fulfilling the vow. Luís Alonso Schökel translates the whole line simply by saying “don’t wait until death to fulfil it,” and this is adequate. Another possible model is “Don’t wait until the day you die to get right with God,” or even simply “Don’t wait until the day you die.”

What the translator must avoid here is any suggestion that death is what releases people from their vows, that death is what sets things straight. Also, the translator must avoid saying that matters will be set straight after death. New Jerusalem Bible, for instance, can be misinterpreted in that way with “and do not wait till death to set matters right.”

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.