✠ The Douay-Rheims Bible
✠ Sirach 16
Chapters
SIR 16:1 Rejoice not in ungodly children, if they be multiplied: neither be delighted in them, if the fear of God be not with them.
SIR 16:2 Trust not to their life, and respect not their labours.
SIR 16:3 For better is one that feareth God, than a thousand ungodly children.
SIR 16:4 And it is better to die without children, than to leave ungodly children.
SIR 16:5 By one that is wise a country shall be inhabited, the tribe of the ungodly shall become desolate.
SIR 16:6 Many such things hath my eyes seen, and greater things than these my ear hath heard.
SIR 16:7 In the congregation of sinners a fire shall be kindled, and in an unbelieving nation wrath shall dame out.
SIR 16:8 The ancient giants did not obtain pardon for their sine, who were destroyed trusting to their own strength:
SIR 16:9 And he spared not the place where Lot sojourned, but abhorred them for the pride of their word.
SIR 16:10 He had not pity on them, destroying the whole nation that extolled them- selves in their sine.
SIR 16:11 So did he with the six hundred thousand footmen, who were gathered together in the hardness of their heart: and if one had been stiffnecked, it is a wonder if he had escaped unpunished:
SIR 16:12 For mercy and wrath are with him. He is mighty to forgive, and to pour out indignation:
SIR 16:13 According as his mercy is, so his correction judgeth a man according to his works.
SIR 16:14 The sinner shall not escape in his rapines, and the patience of him that sheweth mercy shall not be put off.
SIR 16:15 All mercy shall make a place for every man according to the merit of his works, and according to the wisdom of his sojournment.
SIR 16:16 Say not: I shall be hidden from God. and who shall remember me from on high?
SIR 16:17 In such a multitude I shall not be known: for what is my soul in such an immense creation?
SIR 16:18 Behold the heaven, and the heavens of heavens, the deep, and all the earth, and the things that are in them, shall be moved in his sight,
SIR 16:19 The mountains also, and the hills, end the foundations of the earth: when God shall look upon them, they shall be shaken with trembling.
SIR 16:20 And in all these things the heart is senseless: and every heart is understood by him:
SIR 16:21 And his ways who shall understand, and the storm, which no eye of man see?
SIR 16:22 For many of his works are hidden: hut the works of his justice who shall declare? or who shall endure? for the testament is far from some, and the examination of all is in the end.
SIR 16:23 He that wanteth understanding thinketh vain things: and the foolish, and erring man, thinketh foolish things.
SIR 16:24 Hearken to me, my son, and learn the discipline of understanding, and attend to my words in thy heart.
SIR 16:25 And I will shew forth good doctrine in equity, and will seek to declare wisdom: and attend to my words in thy heart, whilst with equity of spirit I tell thee the virtues that God hath put upon his works from the beginning, and I shew forth in truth his knowledge.
SIR 16:26 The works of God are done in judgment from the beginning, and from the making of them he distinguished their parts, and their beginnings in their generations.
SIR 16:27 He beautified their works for ever, they have neither hungered, nor laboured, and they have not ceased from their works.
SIR 16:28 Nor shall any of them straiten his neighbour at any time.
SIR 16:29 Be not thou incredulous to his word.
SIR 16:30 After this God looked upon the earth, and filled it with his goods.