✠ The Douay-Rheims Bible
✠ Sirach 9
Chapters
SIR 9:1 Be not jealous over the wife of thy bosom, lest she shew in thy regard the malice of a wicked lesson.
SIR 9:2 Give not the power of thy soul to a woman, lest she enter upon thy strength, and thou be confounded.
SIR 9:3 Look not upon a woman that hath a mind for many: lest thou fall into her snares.
SIR 9:4 Use not much the company of her that is a dancer, and hearken not to her, lest thou perish by the force of her charms.
SIR 9:5 Gaze not upon a maiden, lest her beauty be a stumblingblock to thee.
SIR 9:6 Give not thy soul to harlots in any point: lest thou destroy thyself and thy inheritance.
SIR 9:7 Look not round about thee in the of the city, nor wander up and down in the streets thereof.
SIR 9:8 Turn away thy face from a woman dressed up, and gaze not about upon another’s beauty.
SIR 9:9 For many have perished by the beauty of a woman, and hereby lust is enkindled as a fire.
SIR 9:10 Every woman that is a harlot, shall be trodden upon as dung in the way.
SIR 9:11 Many by admiring the beauty of another man’s wife, have become reprobate, for her conversation burneth as fire.
SIR 9:12 Sit not at all with another man’s wife, nor repose upon the bed with her:
SIR 9:13 And strive not with her over wine, lest thy heart decline towards her, and by thy blood thou fall into destruction.
SIR 9:14 Forsake not an old friend, for the new will not be like to him.
SIR 9:15 A new friend is as new wine: it shall grow old, and thou shalt drink it with pleasure.
SIR 9:16 Envy not the glory and riches of a sinner: for thou knowest not what his ruin shall be.
SIR 9:17 Be not pleased with the wrong done by the unjust, knowing that even to hell the wicked shall not please.
SIR 9:18 Keep thee far from the man that hath power to kill, so thou shalt not suspect the fear of death.
SIR 9:19 And if thou come to him, commit no fault, lest he take away thy life.
SIR 9:20 Know it to be a communication with death: for thou art going in the midst of snares, and walking upon the arms of them that are grieved:
SIR 9:21 According to thy power beware of thy neighbor, and treat with the wise and prudent.
SIR 9:22 Let just men be thy guests, and let thy glory be in the fear of God.
SIR 9:23 And let the thought of God be in thy mind, and all thy discourse on the commandments of the Highest.
SIR 9:24 Works shall be praised for the hand of the artificers, and the prince of the people for the wisdom of his speech, but word of the ancients for the sense.