Chapter 16

Do not desire a multitude of worthless children. Better is one righteous person than a thousand sinners. A sinner will not escape the punishment of God’s justice. Each will receive according to their deeds. The laws of the Lord are holy and inviolable.

Sirach 16:1. Do not desire a multitude of worthless children and do not rejoice in ungodly sons. When they multiply, do not rejoice in them if there is no fear of the Lord in them. 2. Do not rely on their life and do not lean on their multitude. 3. Better is one righteous person than a thousand sinners, 4. and better to die childless than to have ungodly children, 5. for from one wise person a city will be populated, and a tribe of lawless people will be deserted. Verse 5 refers to verse 3.

Sirach 16:6. My eyes have seen much, and my ears have heard even more than that. 7. Fire will blaze up in the assembly of sinners, as anger blazed up in the disobedient people. 7. In the assembly of sinners, a sinful fire of godless passions can always blaze up, just as this fire of rebellion against God blazed up in former times in the disobedient Hebrew people.

Sirach 16:8. He did not show mercy to the ancient giants who became rebels in their confidence in their own strength; 9. nor did He spare those who lived in one place with Lot, those whom He abhorred for their pride; 9. See Gen 19:11. This refers to the destruction of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, along with their dwellings and possessions.

Sirach 16:10. He did not spare the ruined people who puffed themselves up with their sins, 11. just as he did the six hundred thousand people who banded together in their hard-heartedness. And even if there were but one disobedient person, it would be a marvel if he remained unpunished; 11. At the time of the exodus from Egypt, the Hebrew males capable of war were numbered “up to six hundred thousand.”

Sirach 16:12. for both mercy and anger are in His power: He is able to have mercy and to pour out anger. 13. As great is His mercy, so great is His reproof. He judges a person according to their deeds. 14. A sinner will not escape from Him by theft, and the patience of the godly will not remain in vain. 15. To every act of mercy He will give its place; each will receive according to their deeds. 16. Do not say, “I will hide from the Lord; will not anyone remember me from on high?” 17. I will not be noticed in the multitude of people; for what is my soul in the immeasurable creation? 18. Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to God, the abyss and the earth tremble at His visitation. 19. Likewise the mountains tremble and the foundations of the earth quake when He gazes. 19. See Exod 19:16-19. The sense of the preceding and following verses (16-23) is that only one lacking understanding could hope to hide from the eyes of divine truth, when divine knowledge, glory, and might fill the whole world.

Sirach 16:20. And this the heart cannot understand; 21. and who will comprehend His ways? As the wind, which a person cannot see, so the greater part of His works are hidden. 22. Who will declare the works of His justice? or who will await them? for this decree is far off. 23. A person lacking understanding thinks so, and a foolish and deluded person reasons so foolishly. 24. Listen to me, my son, and learn knowledge, and pay close attention with your heart to my words. 25. I am showing you deliberate teaching and passing on to you precise knowledge. 26. By the decree of the Lord His works are from the beginning, and from their creation He arranged their parts. 27. Forever He ordered His works, and their beginnings are in their generations. They do not hunger, they do not grow weary, and they do not cease from their actions. 28. None constrains the one near it, 29. and they will not resist His word forever. 30. And afterward the Lord looked upon the earth and filled it with His blessings. 31. The soul of all living things has covered its face, and into it all will return. 26-31. The world, created by the Lord God according to His eternal ideas of perfect wisdom, testifies to the wisdom, goodness, and power of its Creator. The laws of being, both physical and spiritual, established by Him, are holy and unchangeable. And if compliance with these laws leads to prosperity, then deviation from them is accompanied by suffering.