Sirach

¹ O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that hath peace in his possessions!

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

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

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

⁵ Fear 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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