Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 28

¹ He who exacts vengeance will experience the vengeance of the Lord, who keeps strict account of sin.

² Forgive your neighbour the hurt he does you, and when you pray, your sins will be forgiven.

³ If a man nurses anger against another, can he then demand compassion from the Lord?

⁴ Showing no pity for a man like himself, can he then plead for his own sins?

⁵ Mere creature of flesh, he cherishes resentment; who will forgive him his sins?

⁶ Remember the last things, and stop hating, remember dissolution and death, and live by the commandments.

⁷ Remember the commandments, and do not bear your neighbour ill-will; remember the covenant of the Most High, and overlook the offence.

⁸ Avoid quarrelling and you will sin less; for a hot-tempered man provokes quarrels,

⁹ a sinner sows trouble between friends, introducing discord among men at peace.

¹⁰ The way a fire burns depends on its fuel, a quarrel spreads in proportion to its violence; a man’s rage depends on his strength, his fury grows fiercer in proportion to his wealth.

¹¹ A sudden quarrel kindles fire, a hasty dispute leads to bloodshed.

¹² Blow on a spark and up it flares, spit on it and out it goes; both are the effects of your mouth.

¹³ A curse on the scandal-monger and the deceitful, he has ruined many who lived in concord.

¹⁴ That third tongue has shaken many,[*a] and driven them from nation to nation; it has pulled down fortified cities, and overturned the houses of princes.

¹⁵ The third tongue has driven virtuous wives out of house and home, and deprived them of the due reward for their hard work.

¹⁶ Anyone who listens to it will never know peace of mind, will never live in peace again.

¹⁷ A stroke of the whip raises a weal, but a stroke of the tongue breaks bones.

¹⁸ Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but many more have fallen by the tongue.

¹⁹ Happy the man who has been sheltered from it, and has not experienced its fury, who has not dragged its yoke about, or been bound in its chains;

²⁰ for its yoke is an iron yoke, its chains are bronze chains;

²¹ the death it inflicts is a miserable death, Sheol is preferable to it.

²² It cannot gain a hold over the devout, they are not burnt by its flames.

²³ Those who desert the Lord will fall into it, it will flare up inextinguishably among them, it will be let loose against them like a lion, it will tear them like a leopard.

²⁴ Look, fence your property round with a quickthorn hedge, lock away your silver and gold;

²⁵ then make scales and weights for your words, then make and put a door with bolts across your mouth.

²⁶ Take care you take no false step through it, in case you fall a prey to him who lies in wait.