Sirach 41–42

Chapter 41

O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that hath peace in his possessions!

²To a man that is at rest, and whose ways are prosperous in all things, and that is yet able to take meat!

³O death thy sentence is welcome to the man that is in need, and to him whose strength faileth:

⁴Who is in a decrepit age, and that is in care about all things, and to the distrustful that loseth patience!

⁵Fear not the sentence of death. Remember what things have been before thee, and what shall come after thee: this sentence is from the Lord upon all flesh.

⁶And what shall come upon thee by the good pleasure of the most High? whether ten, or a hundred, or a thousand years.

⁷For among the dead there is no accusing of life.

⁸The children of sinners become children of abominations, and they that converse near the houses of the ungodly.

⁹The inheritance of the children of sinners shall perish, and with their posterity shall be a perpetual reproach.

¹⁰The children will complain of an ungodly father, because for his sake they are in reproach.

¹¹Woe to you, ungodly men, who have forsaken the law of the most high Lord.

¹²And if you be born, you shall be born in malediction: and if you die, in malediction shall be your portion.

¹³All things that are of the earth, shall return into the earth: so the ungodly shall from malediction to destruction.

¹⁴The mourning of men is about their body, but the name of the ungodly shall be blotted out.

¹⁵Take care of a good name: for this shall continue with thee, more than a thousand treasures precious and great.

¹⁶A good life hath its number of days: but a good name shall continue for ever.

¹⁷My children, keep discipline in peace: for wisdom that is hid, and a treasure that is not seen, what profit is there in them both?

¹⁸Better is the man that hideth his folly, than the man that hideth his wisdom.

¹⁹Wherefore have a shame of these things I am now going to speak of.

²⁰For it is not good to keep all shamefacedness: and all things do not please all men in opinion.

²¹Be ashamed of fornication before father and mother: and of a lie before a governor and a man in power:

²²Of an offence before a prince, and a judge: of iniquity before a congregation and a people:

²³Of injustice before a companion and friend: and in regard to the place where thou dwellest,

²⁴Of theft, and of the truth of God, and the covenant: of leaning with thy elbow over meat, and of deceit in giving and taking:

²⁵Of silence before them that salute thee: of looking upon a harlot: and of turning away thy face from thy kinsman.

²⁶Turn not away thy face from thy neighbour, and of taking away a portion and not restoring.

²⁷Gaze not upon another man’s wife, and be not inquisitive after his handmaid, and approach not her bed.

²⁸Be ashamed of upbraiding speeches before friends: and after thou hast given, upbraid not.

Chapter 42

Repeat not the word which thou hast heard, and disclose not the thing that is secret; so shalt thou be truly without confusion, and shalt find favour before all men: be not ashamed of any of these things, and accept no person to sin thereby:

²Of the law of the most High, and of his covenant, and of judgment to justify the ungodly:

³Of the affair of companions and travellers, and of the gift of the inheritance of friends:

⁴Of exactness of balance and weights, of getting much or little:

⁵Of the corruption of buying, and of merchants, and of much correction of children, and to make the side of a wicked slave to bleed.

⁶Sure keeping is good over a wicked wife.

⁷Where there are many hands, shut up, and deliver all things in number, and weight: and put all in writing that thou givest out or receivest in.

⁸Be not ashamed to inform the unwise and foolish, and the aged, that are judged by young men: and thou shalt be well instructed in all things, and well approved in the sight of all men living.

⁹The father waketh for the daughter when no man knoweth, and the care for her taketh away his sleep, when she is young, lest she pass away the flower of her age, and when she is married, lest she should be hateful:

¹⁰In her virginity, lest she should be corrupted, and be found with child in her father’s house: and having a husband, lest she should misbehave herself, or at the least become barren.

¹¹Keep a sure watch over a shameless daughter: lest at anytime she make thee become a laughingstock to thy enemies, and a byword in the city, and a reproach among the people, and she make thee ashamed before all the multitude.

¹²Behold not everybody’s beauty: and tarry not among women.

¹³For from garments cometh a moth, and from a woman the iniquity of a man.

¹⁴For better is the iniquity of a man, than a woman doing a good turn, and a woman bringing shame and reproach.

¹⁵I will now remember the works of the Lord, and I will declare the things I have seen. By the words of the Lord are his works.

¹⁶The sun giving light hath looked upon all things, and full of the glory of the Lord is his work.

¹⁷Hath not the Lord made the saints to declare all his wonderful works, which the Lord Almighty hath firmly settled to be established for his glory?

¹⁸He hath searched out the deep, and the heart of men: and considered their crafty devices.

¹⁹For the Lord knoweth all knowledge, and hath beheld the signs of the world, he declareth the things that are past, and the things that are to come, and revealeth the traces of hidden things.

²⁰No thought escapeth him, and no word can hide itself from him.

²¹He hath beautified the glorious works of his wisdom: and he is from eternity to eternity, and to him nothing may be added,

²²Nor can he be diminished, and he hath no need of any counsellor.

²³O how desirable are all his works, and what we can know is but as a spark!

²⁴All these things live, and remain for ever, and for every use all things obey him.

²⁵All things are double, one against another, and he hath made nothing defective.

²⁶He hath established the good things of every one. And who shall be filled with beholding his glory?