Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 10

¹ The wise magistrate will be strict with his people, and the government of a prudent man will be well-regulated.

² As the magistrate is, so will his officials be, as the governor is, so will be the inhabitants of his city.

³ An uneducated king will be the ruin of his people, a city owes its prosperity to the intelligence of its leading men.

⁴ The government of the earth is in the hands of the Lord, he sets the right man over it at the right time.

⁵ A man’s success is in the hands of the Lord, it is he who invests the lawgiver with honour.

⁶ Do not resent your neighbour’s every offence, and never act in a fit of passion.

⁷ Pride is hateful to God and man, and injustice is abhorrent to both.

⁸ Empire passes from nation to nation because of injustice, arrogance and money.

⁹ What has dust and ashes to pride itself on? Even in life its guts are repellent.

¹⁰ A long illness mocks the doctor; a king today is a corpse tomorrow.

¹¹ When a man comes to die, his inheritance will be creeping things, beasts of prey, worms.

¹² The beginning of human pride is to desert the Lord, and to turn one’s heart away from one’s maker.

¹³ Since the beginning of pride is sin, whoever clings to it will pour forth filth. For which reason the Lord inflicted extraordinary punishments on them and utterly overthrew them.

¹⁴ The Lord has thrown down rulers’ thrones, and seated the humble in their place.

¹⁵ The Lord has plucked up proud men by the roots, and planted the lowly in their place.

¹⁶ The Lord has overthrown the lands of the heathens and destroyed them to the very foundations of the earth.

¹⁷ He has taken some of them away and destroyed them, and blotted out their memory from the earth.

¹⁸ Pride was not created for men, nor furious rage for those born of woman.

¹⁹ What race deserves honour? The human race. What race deserves honour? Those who fear the Lord. What race deserves contempt? The human race. What race deserves contempt? Those who break the commandments.

²⁰ Among brothers the leader of them deserves honour, and those who fear the Lord deserve honour in his sight.

²² Let rich and noble and poor take pride in fearing the Lord.

²³ It is not right to despise a poor but intelligent man, and it is not good to honour a man who is a sinner.

²⁴ Ruler, magistrate, influential man, all are to be honoured, but none of them is greater than him who fears the Lord.

²⁵ A wise slave will have free men waiting on him, and the man of sense will not grumble.

²⁶ Do not try to be smart when you do your work, do not put on airs when you are in difficulties.

²⁷ Better a hardworking man who has plenty of everything, than a pretentious man at a loss for a meal.

²⁸ My son, be modest in your self-esteem, and value yourself at your proper worth.

²⁹ Who can justify a man who runs himself down, or respect a man who despises himself?

³⁰ A poor man is honoured for his wits, and a rich man for his wealth.

³¹ Honoured in poverty, how much the more in wealth! Dishonoured in wealth, how much the more in poverty!