And cause the fear of thee to fall upon all the nations is literally “and throw the fear of you upon….” The prayer is that God will make the Gentiles terrified of what he is about to do to them. Good News Translation employs the English idiom “stand in fear.” Revised English Bible is also good, but idiomatic by rendering the verse as “and strike fear into every nation.” Other possibilities are “and cause every nation to be terrified of you” and “… shake with fear because of you.” The nations here has the specific meaning of the Gentile nations, any non-Jewish people. “All the other nations” might work if it were clear that it means “all except us.” A similar problem is in the next line, and translators would do well to deal with both lines at the same time.

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.