Bullard and Hatton on Sirach 28:2 (cf. Matthew 6:14)

  

RSV	GNT
Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done, and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray.	But if you forgive someone who has wrong you, your sins will be forgiven when you pray.

 

Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done, and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray: Compare Matt. 6.14. GNT cases this verse as a conditional sentence: “But if you forgive someone who has wrong you, your sins will be forgiven.” The Lord is the one who forgives the sins in the second clause. Even in languages with a passive voice, naming the Lord as the agent (doer of the action) here might have a nice parallel to the first verse. EV has a helpful model in the active voice:

 

·       So forgive those who harm you,
and when you pray,
God [the Lord] will forgive you. (Roger A. Bullard and Howard A. Hatton, A Handbook on Sirach [UBS Handbook Series; New York: United Bible Societies, 2008], 576)