Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 14

¹ Happy the man who has not sinned in speech and who need feel no remorse for sins.

² Happy the man whose own soul does not accuse him, and who has never given up hope.

³ Wealth is not the right thing for a niggardly man, and what use are possessions to a covetous one?

⁴ A man who hoards by stinting himself is hoarding for others, and others will live sumptuously on his riches.

⁵ If a man is mean to himself, to whom will he be good? He does not even enjoy what is his own.

⁶ No one is meaner than the man who is mean to himself, and this is how his wickedness pays him back.

⁷ If he does good at all, he does it without intending to, and in the end he himself reveals his wickedness.

⁸ Evil is the man who has a grudging eye, averting his face, and careless of others’ lives.

⁹ The eye of the grasping man is not content with his portion, greed shrivels up the soul

¹⁰ The miser is grudging of bread, there is famine at his table.

¹¹ My son, treat at yourself as well as you can afford and bring worthy offerings to the Lord.

¹² Remember that death will not delay and that the covenant of Sheol[*a] has not been revealed to you.

¹³ Be kind to your friend before you die treat him as generously as you can afford.

¹⁴ Do not refuse yourself the good things of today, do not let your share of what is lawfully desired pass you by.

¹⁵ Will you not have to leave your fortune to another, and the fruit of your labour to be divided by lot?

¹⁶ Then give and receive, and take your ease, for in Sheol you cannot look for pleasure.

¹⁷ Every living thing grows old like a garment, the age-old law is ‘Death must be’.

¹⁸ Like foliage growing on a bushy tree, some leaves falling, others growing, so are the generations of flesh and blood: one dies, another is born.

¹⁹ Every achievement rots away and perishes, and with it goes its author.

²⁰ Happy the man who meditates on wisdom, and reasons with good sense,

²¹ who studies her ways in his heart, and ponders her secrets.

²² He pursues her like a hunter, and lies in wait by her path;

²³ he peeps in at her windows, and listens at her doors;

²⁴ he lodges close to her house, and fixes his peg in her walls;

²⁵ he pitches his tent at her side, and lodges in an excellent lodging;

²⁶ he sets his children in her shade, and camps beneath her branches;

²⁷ he is sheltered by her from the heat, and in her glory he makes his home.