Sirach 49

Josiah and Other Worthies

⁴⁹The name^o of Josiah is like blended incense

prepared by the skill of the perfumer;

his memory^p is as sweet as honey to every mouth

and like music at a banquet of wine.^*

²He did what was right by reforming the people

and removing the lawless abominations.^*

³He kept his heart fixed on the Lord;

in lawless times he made godliness prevail.^*

⁴Except for David and Hezekiah and Josiah,

all of them were great sinners,

for they abandoned the law of the Most High;

the kings of Judah came to an end.^*

⁵They^q gave their power to others

and their glory to a foreign nation,^*

⁶who set fire to the chosen city of the sanctuary

and made its streets desolate,

as Jeremiah had foretold.^r*

⁷For they had mistreated him,

who even in the womb had been consecrated a prophet,

to pluck up and ruin and destroy

and likewise to build and to plant.^*

⁸It was Ezekiel who saw the vision of glory,

which God^s showed him above the chariot of the cherubim.^*

⁹For he also mentioned Job,

who held fast to all the ways of justice.^t

¹⁰May the bones of the Twelve Prophets

send forth new life from where they lie,

for they comforted the people of Jacob

and delivered them with confident hope.^*

¹¹How shall we magnify Zerubbabel?

He was like a signet ring on the right hand,^*

¹²and so was Jeshua son of Jozadak;

in their days they built the house

and raised a temple^u holy to the Lord,

prepared for everlasting glory.^*

¹³The memory of Nehemiah also is lasting;

he raised our fallen walls

and set up gates and bars

and rebuilt our ruined houses.^*

Retrospect

¹⁴Few have^v ever been created on earth like Enoch,

for he was taken up from the earth.^*

¹⁵Nor was anyone ever born like Joseph;^w

even his bones were cared for.^*

¹⁶Shem and Seth and Enosh were honored,^x

but above every other created living being was Adam.^*