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Sirach 42

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1 ἀπὸ δευτερώσεως καὶ λόγου ἀκοῆς καὶ ἀπὸ καλύψεως λόγων κρυφίων καὶ ἔσῃ αἰσχυντηρὸς ἀληθινῶς καὶ εὑρίσκων χάριν ἔναντι παντὸς ἀνθρώπου μὴ περὶ τούτων αἰσχυνθῇς καὶ μὴ λάβῃς πρόσωπον τοῦ ἁμαρτάνειν 2 περὶ νόμου ὑψίστου καὶ διαθήκης καὶ περὶ κρίματος δικαιῶσαι τὸν ἀσεβῆ 3 περὶ λόγου κοινωνοῦ καὶ ὁδοιπόρων καὶ περὶ δόσεως κληρονομίας ἑταίρων 4 περὶ ἀκριβείας ζυγοῦ καὶ σταθμίων καὶ περὶ κτήσεως πολλῶν καὶ ὀλίγων 5 περὶ διαφόρου πράσεως ἐμπόρων καὶ περὶ παιδείας τέκνων πολλῆς καὶ οἰκέτῃ πονηρῷ πλευρὰν αἱμάξαι 6 ἐπὶ γυναικὶ πονηρᾷ καλὸν σφραγίς 7 καὶ ὅπου χεῖρες πολλαί κλεῖσον ὃ ἐὰν παραδιδῷς ἐν ἀριθμῷ καὶ σταθμῷ καὶ δόσις καὶ λῆμψις πάντα ἐν γραφῇ 8 περὶ παιδείας ἀνοήτου καὶ μωροῦ καὶ ἐσχατογήρως κρινομένου πρὸς νέους καὶ ἔσῃ πεπαιδευμένος ἀληθινῶς καὶ δεδοκιμασμένος ἔναντι παντὸς ζῶντος

1 Nor ever do thou repeat gossip to the betraying of another’s secret. If of such things thou art ashamed, shame thou shalt never feel, and thou shalt have all men’s good word besides.

And other dealings there are over which thou must never be abashed,[1] nor, through respect for any human person consent to wrong. 2 Such are, the law of the most High and his covenant; and right award, that gives the godless his due; 3 a matter between some partner of thine and strangers from far off, the apportioning of an inheritance among thy friends, 4 the trueness of weight and balance, profit overmuch or too little, 5 the exchange between buyer and seller, the strict punishing of children, the cudgelling of a wicked slave till he bleeds … 6 Thriftless wife if thou hast, seal is best. 7 Where many hands are at work, lock all away; part with nothing, till it be measured and weighed, and of all thy spending and receiving, written record kept … 8 Nor be thou abashed, when there is question of chastising reckless folly, and the complaints of old men against the young. So thou shalt shew prudence in all thy dealings, and win the good word of all.

1

Non duplices sermonem auditus de revelatione sermonis absconditi:
et eris vere sine confusione,
et invenies gratiam in conspectu omnium hominum.
Ne pro his omnibus confundaris,
et ne accipias personam ut delinquas: 2
de lege Altissimi, et testamento,
et de judicio justificare impium, 3
de verbo sociorum et viatorum,
et de datione hæreditatis amicorum, 4
de æqualitate stateræ et ponderum,
de acquisitione multorum et paucorum, 5
de corruptione emptionis et negotiatorum,
et de multa disciplina filiorum,
et servo pessimo latus sanguinare. 6
Super mulierem nequam bonum est signum. 7
Ubi manus multæ sunt, claude:
et quodcumque trades, numera et appende:
datum vero et acceptum omne describe. 8
De disciplina insensati et fatui,
et de senioribus qui judicantur ab adolescentibus:
et eris eruditus in omnibus,
et probabilis in conspectu omnium vivorum.

9 θυγάτηρ πατρὶ ἀπόκρυφος ἀγρυπνία καὶ ἡ μέριμνα αὐτῆς ἀφιστᾷ ὕπνον ἐν νεότητι αὐτῆς μήποτε παρακμάσῃ καὶ συνῳκηκυῖα μήποτε μισηθῇ 10 ἐν παρθενίᾳ μήποτε βεβηλωθῇ καὶ ἐν τοῖς πατρικοῖς αὐτῆς ἔγκυος γένηται μετὰ ἀνδρὸς οὖσα μήποτε παραβῇ καὶ συνῳκηκυῖα μήποτε στειρωθῇ 11 ἐπὶ θυγατρὶ ἀδιατρέπτῳ στερέωσον φυλακήν μήποτε ποιήσῃ σε ἐπίχαρμα ἐχθροῖς λαλιὰν ἐν πόλει καὶ ἔκκλητον λαοῦ καὶ καταισχύνῃ σε ἐν πλήθει πολλῶν 12 παντὶ ἀνθρώπῳ μὴ ἔμβλεπε ἐν κάλλει καὶ ἐν μέσῳ γυναικῶν μὴ συνέδρευε 13 ἀπὸ γὰρ ἱματίων ἐκπορεύεται σὴς καὶ ἀπὸ γυναικὸς πονηρία γυναικός 14 κρείσσων πονηρία ἀνδρὸς ἢ ἀγαθοποιὸς γυνή καὶ γυνὴ καταισχύνουσα εἰς ὀνειδισμόν

9 Daughter to her father is ever hidden anxiety, a care that banishes sleep. Is she young? Then how if age creep on too soon? Is she wed? Then how if her husband should tire of her? 10 Is she maid? Then how if she were disgraced, and in her own father’s house brought to bed? Once more, is she wed? Then how if she were false to her husband? How if she prove barren? 11 Over wanton daughter of thine thou canst not keep watch too strict; else she will make thee the scorn of thy enemies, the talk of the city; strangers will point the finger at thee, and all the rabble know thy shame. 12 Gaze not on the beauty of human kind, nor occupy thyself much with women; 13 garment breeds moth, and woman wickedness in man. 14 Man’s wickedness is too strong for woman at her best;[2] and a woman that plays thee false brings thee only disgrace.

9

Filia patris abscondita est vigilia,
et sollicitudo ejus aufert somnum:
ne forte in adolescentia sua adulta efficiatur,
et cum viro commorata odibilis fiat: 10
nequando polluatur in virginitate sua,
et in paternis suis gravida inveniatur:
ne forte cum viro commorata transgrediatur,
aut certe sterilis efficiatur. 11
Super filiam luxuriosam confirma custodiam,
nequando faciat te in opprobrium venire inimicis,
a detractione in civitate, et objectione plebis,
et confundat te in multitudine populi. 12
Omni homini noli intendere in specie,
et in medio mulierum noli commorari: 13
de vestimentis enim procedit tinea,
et a muliere iniquitas viri. 14
Melior est enim iniquitas viri quam mulier benefaciens,
et mulier confundens in opprobrium.

15 μνησθήσομαι δὴ τὰ ἔργα κυρίου καὶ ἃ ἑόρακα ἐκδιηγήσομαι ἐν λόγοις κυρίου τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ 16 ἥλιος φωτίζων κατὰ πᾶν ἐπέβλεψεν καὶ τῆς δόξης κυρίου πλῆρες τὸ ἔργον αὐτοῦ 17 οὐκ ἐξεποίησεν τοῖς ἁγίοις κυρίου ἐκδιηγήσασθαι πάντα τὰ θαυμάσια αὐτοῦ ἃ ἐστερέωσεν κύριος ὁ παντοκράτωρ στηριχθῆναι ἐν δόξῃ αὐτοῦ τὸ πᾶν 18 ἄβυσσον καὶ καρδίαν ἐξίχνευσεν καὶ ἐν πανουργεύμασιν αὐτῶν διενοήθη 19 ἔγνω γὰρ ὁ ὕψιστος πᾶσαν εἴδησιν καὶ ἐνέβλεψεν εἰς σημεῖον αἰῶνος ἀπαγγέλλων τὰ παρεληλυθότα καὶ τὰ ἐσόμενα καὶ ἀποκαλύπτων ἴχνη ἀποκρύφων 20 οὐ παρῆλθεν αὐτὸν πᾶν διανόημα οὐκ ἐκρύβη ἀ{P'} αὐτοῦ οὐδὲ εἷς λόγος 21 τὰ μεγαλεῖα τῆς σοφίας αὐτοῦ ἐκόσμησεν ὡς ἔστιν πρὸ τοῦ αἰῶνος καὶ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα οὔτε προσετέθη 22 οὔτε ἠλαττώθη καὶ οὐ προσεδεήθη οὐδενὸς συμβούλου 23 ὡς πάντα τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ ἐπιθυμητὰ καὶ ὡς σπινθῆρός ἐστιν θεωρῆσαι 24 πάντα ταῦτα ζῇ καὶ μένει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ἐν πάσαις χρείαις καὶ πάντα ὑπακούει 25 πάντα δισσά ἓν κατέναντι τοῦ ἑνός καὶ οὐκ ἐποίησεν οὐδὲν ἐλλεῖπον 26 ἓν τοῦ ἑνὸς ἐστερέωσεν τὰ ἀγαθά καὶ τίς πλησθήσεται ὁρῶν δόξαν αὐτοῦ

15 Recount we now what things the Lord has made; his visible creation be our theme; nothing he has fashioned but hangs on his word. 16 Just as yonder sun that looks down on all gives light to all, so the glory of the Lord shines through all his creation; 17 how should his faithful servants herald them enough, these marvels of his, enabled by divine omnipotence in that glory to endure? 18 Nothing is hidden from him, the deepest depths of earth or of man’s heart; he knows our most secret designs. 19 All knowledge is his; does he not hold the clue of eternity, making plain what has been and what is yet to be, laying bare the track of hidden things? 20 No thought of ours escapes him, never a whisper goes unheard. 21 How great the wisdom that so ordered all things, his wisdom who has neither beginning nor end; nothing may be added, 22 nothing taken away from them, nor needs he any man’s counsel. 23 How lovely is all he has made, how dazzling to look upon![3] 24 Changeless through the ages, all of it lives on, responsive to his calls. 25 All things he has made in pairs, balanced against one another; never a fault of symmetry;[4] 26 to each one its own well-being assured. His glory contemplating, thou shalt never have thy fill.

15

Memor ero igitur operum Domini,
et quæ vidi annuntiabo.
In sermonibus Domini opera ejus. 16
Sol illuminans per omnia respexit,
et gloria Domini plenum est opus ejus. 17
Nonne Dominus fecit sanctos enarrare omnia mirabilia sua,
quæ confirmavit Dominus omnipotens stabiliri in gloria sua? 18
Abyssum et cor hominum investigavit,
et in astutia eorum excogitavit. 19
Cognovit enim Dominus omnem scientiam,
et inspexit in signum ævi,
annuntians quæ præterierunt et quæ superventura sunt,
revelans vestigia occultorum. 20
Non præterit illum omnis cogitatus,
et non abscondit se ab eo ullus sermo. 21
Magnalia sapientiæ suæ decoravit,
qui est ante sæculum et usque in sæculum:
neque adjectum est, 22
neque minuitur,
et non eget alicujus consilio. 23
Quam desiderabilia omnia opera ejus!
et tamquam scintilla quæ est considerare! 24
Omnia hæc vivunt, et manent in sæculum,
et in omni necessitate omnia obaudiunt ei. 25
Omnia duplicia, unum contra unum,
et non fecit quidquam deesse. 26
Uniuscujusque confirmavit bona:
et quis satiabitur videns gloriam ejus?

[1] vv. 1-8: Once more the text seems curiously confused. Verse 2 ought, judging by its form, to be a list of things we ought never to be ashamed of; ‘Concerning the law of the most High, and his covenant, and acquitting the guilty’ yields no tolerable sense. Verses 6, 7 look as if they had been displaced, and belonged to some quite different context. The explanation of verse 8 is perhaps to be found in Deut. 21.18.

[2] The Greek is just patient of the rendering given above; but the natural sense of all the versions is ‘Man’s wickedness is better than a woman who does good’—a sentiment which could have little meaning, even in the mouth of the most determined cynic. Probably the true text is lost in this passage; the Greek in verse 13 has ‘wickedness in woman’, and the Hebrew in verse 12 has ‘let her not shew her beauty to male eyes’.

[3] Literally, ‘and like a spark which is to consider’; the Greek is hardly more intelligible.

[4] Cf. 33.15.

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd