Who has seen him and can describe him?: The implied answer to this rhetorical question is “No one.” Good News Translation expresses the idea as a statement by saying “No one has seen him, no one can describe him.”

Or who can extol him as he is?: Here is another rhetorical question. No one’s praise of God can provide an adequate description, an adequate idea of God. Good News Translation shows a good approach with “no one can praise him as he deserves.” Contemporary English Version has “we really don’t know how to praise him.”

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.