✠ The Douay-Rheims Bible
✠ Sirach 33
Chapters
SIR 33:1 NO evils shall happen to him that feareth the Lord, but in temptation God will keep him, and deliver him from evils.
SIR 33:2 A wise man hateth not the commandments and justices, and he shall not be dashed in pieces as a ship in a storm.
SIR 33:3 A man of understanding is faithful to the law of God, and the law is faithful to him.
SIR 33:4 He that cleareth up a question, shall prepare what to say, and so having prayed he shall be heard, and shall keep discipline, and then he shall answer.
SIR 33:5 The heart of a fool is as a wheel of a cart: and his thoughts are like a rolling axletree.
SIR 33:6 A friend that is a mocker, is like a stallion horse: he neigheth under every one that sitteth upon him.
SIR 33:7 Why doth one day excel another, and one light another, and one year another year, when all come of the sun?
SIR 33:8 By the knowledge of the Lord they were distinguished, the sun being made, and keeping his commandment.
SIR 33:9 And he ordered the seasons, and holidays of them, and in them they celebrated festivals at an hour.
SIR 33:10 Some of them God made high and great days, and some of them he put in the number of ordinary days. And all men are from the ground, and out of the earth, from whence Adam was created.
SIR 33:11 With much knowledge the Lord hath divided them and diversified their ways.
SIR 33:12 Some of them hath he blessed, and exalted: and some of them hath he sanctified, and set near himself: and some of them hath he cursed and brought low, end turned them from their station.
SIR 33:13 As the potter’s clay is in his hand, to fashion and order it:
SIR 33:14 All his ways are according to his ordering: so man is in the hand of him that made him, and he will render to him according to his judgment.
SIR 33:15 Good is set against evil, and life against death: so also is the sinner against a just man. And so look upon all the works of the most High. Two and two, and one against another.
SIR 33:16 And I awaked last of all, and as one that gathereth after the grapegatherers.
SIR 33:17 In the blessing of God I also have hoped: and as one that gathereth grapes, have I filled the winepress.
SIR 33:18 See that I have not laboured for myself only, but for all that seek discipline.
SIR 33:19 Hear me, ye great men, and all ye people, and hearken with your ears, ye rulers of the church.
SIR 33:20 Give not to son or wife, brother or friend, power over thee while thou livest; and give not thy estate to another, lest then repent, and thou entreat for the same.
SIR 33:21 As long as thou livest, and hast breath in thee, let no man change thee.
SIR 33:22 For it is better that thy children should ask of thee, than that thou look toward the hands of thy children.
SIR 33:23 In all thy works keep the pre-eminence.
SIR 33:24 Let no stain sully thy glory. In the time when thou shalt end the days of thy life, and in the time of thy decease, distribute thy inheritance.
SIR 33:25 Fodder, and a wand, and a burden are for an ass: bread, and correction, and work for a slave.
SIR 33:26 He worketh under correction, and seeketh to rest: let his hands be idle, and he seeketh liberty.
SIR 33:27 The yoke and the thong bend a stiff neck, and continual labours bow a slave.
SIR 33:28 Torture and fetters are for a malicious slave: send him to work, that he be not idle:
SIR 33:29 For idleness hath taught much evil.
SIR 33:30 Set him to work: for so it is fit for him. And if he be not obedient, bring him down with fetters, but be not excessive towards any one: and do no grievous thing without judgment.
SIR 33:31 If thou have a faithful servant, let him be to thee as thy own soul: treat him as a brother: because in the blood of thy soul thou hast gotten him.
SIR 33:32 If thou hurt him unjustly, he will run away: