Chapter Two

If you approach to serve the Lord God— prepare your soul for trials, as great as His is His mercy.

Sirach 2:1. My son! If you approach to serve the Lord God, prepare yourself for temptation: Sirach 2:2. Set your heart right and be steadfast, and do not be dismayed in time of visitation; Sirach 2:3. Cleave to Him and do not depart, so that you may be exalted at the end. Sirach 2:4. Whatever happens to you, accept it willingly, and in the changes of your humiliation be patient, Sirach 2:5. for gold is tested in fire, and those who are pleasing to God are tested in the crucible of humiliation. 1–5. One who has decided to walk the path of virtue should not be dismayed by the obstacles he encounters on this path, knowing that these obstacles, by God’s permission, serve to test his faith and strengthen his virtue.

Sirach 2:6. Trust in Him, and He will help you; straighten your paths and hope in Him. Sirach 2:7. You who fear the Lord! Wait for His mercy and do not turn away from Him, so that you do not fall. Sirach 2:8. You who fear the Lord! Believe in Him, and your reward will not be lost. Sirach 2:9. You who fear the Lord! Hope for what is good, for everlasting joy and mercy. Sirach 2:10. Look upon the generations of old and see: who trusted in the Lord and was confounded? Or who ever remained in His fear and was abandoned? Or who ever called upon Him and was despised by Him? Sirach 2:11. For the Lord is compassionate and merciful, and forgives sins and saves in times of distress. Sirach 2:12. Woe to fearful hearts and feeble hands and the sinner who walks in two ways! Sirach 2:13. Woe to the faint-hearted! For they do not believe, and therefore will not be protected. 12–13. See the note to verse 28 of chapter I.

Sirach 2:14. Woe to you who have lost patience! What will you do when the Lord visits you? 14. See the note to verses 1–5.

Sirach 2:15. Those who fear the Lord will not disbelieve His words, and those who love Him will keep His ways. 15. His ways,— that is, the laws of the Lord.

Sirach 2:16. Those who fear the Lord will seek His favor, and those who love Him will be satisfied with the law. 16. Satisfied with the law,— that is, they will nourish their souls by the fulfillment of the good and perfect will of God, expressed in God’s law.

Sirach 2:17. Those who fear the Lord will prepare their hearts and humble their souls before Him, saying: Sirach 2:18. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord and not into the hands of men; for as His greatness is, so also is His mercy. 18. To fall into the hands of God is not the same as to fall into the hands of men. If the Lord visits a man with some trial, He will also have mercy on the faithful one, for God’s mercy is as great as His incomprehensible greatness.