Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 19

¹ Behave like that and you will never grow rich; he who despises trifles will sink down little by little.

² Wine and women corrupt sensible men, the customer of whores loses all sense of shame.

³ Grubs and worms will have him as their legacy, and the man who knows no shame shall lose his life.

⁴ Being too ready to trust shows shallowness of mind, by committing sin a man does wrong to himself.

⁵ Taking pleasure in evil earns condemnation,

⁶ by hating gossip a man avoids evil.

⁷ Never repeat what you are told and you will come to no harm;

⁸ whether to friend or foe, do not talk about it, unless it would be sinful not to, do not reveal it;

⁹ you would be heard out, then mistrusted, and in due course you would be hated.

¹⁰ Have you heard something? Let it die with you. Courage! It will not burst you!

¹¹ A fool will suffer birthpangs over something told him, like a woman labouring with child.

¹² Like an arrow stuck in the flesh of the thigh, such is a piece of news inside a fool.

¹³ Question your friend, he may have done nothing at all, and if he has done anything, he will not do it again.

¹⁴ Question your neighbour, he may have said nothing at all, and if he has said anything, he will not say it again.

¹⁵ Question your friend, for slander is very common, do not believe all you hear.

¹⁶ A man sometimes makes a slip, without meaning what he says; and which of us has never sinned by speech?

¹⁷ Question your neighbour before you threaten him, and leave scope for the Law of the Most High.

²⁰ Wisdom consists entirely in fearing the Lord, and wisdom is entirely constituted by the fulfilling of the Law.

²² But being learned in evil is not wisdom, and there is no shrewd judgement in the advice of sinners.

²³ There is a cleverness that is foul, he who does not have wisdom is a fool.

²⁴ Better be short of sense and full of fear, than abound in shrewdness and violate the Law.

²⁵ There is an adroit sort of cleverness promoting injustice, there is the man who will abuse favours to establish his case.

²⁶ There is the man who will walk bowed down with grief, when inwardly this is nothing but deceit:

²⁷ he hides his face and pretends to be deaf, and when you are off your guard he takes advantage of you.

²⁸ This man may think he lacks the power to sin, but he will do wrong when he gets the chance.

²⁹ You can tell a man by his appearance, you can tell a thinking man by the look on his face.

³⁰ A man’s dress tells you what he does, and a man’s walk tells you what he is.