Like one who kills a son before his father’s eyes is the man who offers a sacrifice from the property of the poor: Good News Translation helpfully reverses these lines in order to state the real topic first, and then draw a comparison. The Greek text does not refer specifically to “an animal” (Good News Translation), but the imagery of killing would be inappropriate for any other type of sacrifice. The point of the comparison is that in both cases someone takes something not his own and destroys it for no purpose. (Such a stolen animal is not acceptable to God as a sacrifice.) If someone steals an animal from a poor family, he is depriving them of food, potentially killing them. This will become clearer in the next verse. Before his father’s eyes may be rendered “while his father is watching.”

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.