Chapter Twenty-Three

Have a scourge for your evil thoughts and a teacher of wisdom for your unclean desires. Do not accustom your lips to oaths. Do not sin with gross reviling. Remember your parents when you sit among the great. Do not hope to hide your sins from God who knows all things. There is nothing better than the fear of the Lord, and nothing sweeter than to hearken to the commandments of the Lord.

Sirach 23:1. O Lord, Father and Master of my life! Do not leave me to their counsel, and permit me not to fall through them. 1. This relates to verse 31 of the preceding chapter.

Sirach 23:2. Who will set a scourge upon my thoughts and instruction in wisdom upon my heart, that they may not spare my transgressions and that the errors of my mouth may not be pardoned; Sirach 23:3. that my transgressions may not be multiplied and my sins not be increased; that I may not fall before my adversaries and that my enemy may not rejoice over me? Sirach 23:4. O Lord, Father and God of my life! Do not give me haughty eyes, and turn away desire from me. Sirach 23:5. Let not the appetites of the flesh and the lust of the body master me, and do not give me over to an unabashed soul. Sirach 23:6. Hear, O children, the instruction concerning the lips: he who keeps it will not be snared by his lips. Sirach 23:7. The sinner is taken by his lips, and the reviler and the arrogant are brought to stumbling by them. Sirach 23:8. Do not accustom your lips to swearing, Sirach 23:9. and do not make a habit of using the name of the Holy One in oaths. Sirach 23:10. For as a slave who is constantly scourged does not stop bearing welts, so he who swears continually by the name of the Holy One will not be cleansed from sin. Sirach 23:11. A man who swears much will be filled with iniquity, and the scourge will not leave his house. Sirach 23:12. If he commits sin, the sin is upon him; and if he is careless, he commits a double sin; Sirach 23:13. and if he swears falsely, he will not be justified, and his house will be filled with calamities. Sirach 23:14. There is a speech clothed with death: may it never be found in the inheritance of Jacob! Sirach 23:15. For all these things will be far from the godly, and they will not wallow in their sins. 8-15. One should not swear needlessly. A light mention of the most holy name of God is already a sin in itself, and besides leads to many other sins: one who swears often and lightly will not escape breaking his light oath. His speech is truly speech clothed with death, calling calamities upon him and his house.

Sirach 23:16. Do not accustom your lips to rough language, for in it there is sinful speech. Sirach 23:17. Remember your father and mother when you sit among the great, 17. When you are in the company of people superior to you, forget neither your origin nor the wise instructions of your father and mother.

Sirach 23:18. that you may not forget yourself before them and behave foolishly out of habit, and wish that you had not been born, and curse the day of your birth. Sirach 23:19. A man who is accustomed to words of abuse will not be taught all his days. 19. Will not learn wisdom.

Sirach 23:20. Two qualities multiply sins, and a third brings down wrath: Sirach 23:21. A soul burning like fire will not be quenched until the kindling is consumed; Sirach 23:22. a man who commits fornication in his body will not cease until the fire burns him out. Sirach 23:23. To the fornicator all bread is sweet: he will not grow weary until he dies. 23. The incorrigible fornicator sins until death. To him every bread is sweet — that is, all occasions of his depravity are pleasing.

Sirach 23:24. A man who sins against his own bed says in his heart, “Who sees me? Sirach 23:25. Darkness is round about me, and the walls hide me, and no one sees me; whom should I fear? The Most High will not remember my sins. Sirach 23:26. His fear is only of men, Sirach 23:27. and he does not know that the eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun, Sirach 23:28. and they look upon all the ways of men, and penetrate the hidden places. Sirach 23:29. All things were known to him before they were created, and so too after their completion. Sirach 23:30. Such a man will be punished in the streets of the city, and will be caught where he least expects it. Sirach 23:31. So too a woman who leaves her husband and bears children by a stranger: Sirach 23:32. for first, she has disobeyed the law of the Most High; second, she has wronged her husband; and third, she has committed fornication in adultery and borne children by another man. Sirach 23:33. She will be brought before the assembly, and her children will be searched out. Sirach 23:34. Her children will not take root, and her branches will not bear fruit. Sirach 23:35. She will leave a curse as her memorial, and her dishonor will not be blotted out. Sirach 23:36. Those who remain will know that there is nothing better than the fear of the Lord, and nothing sweeter than to hearken to the commandments of the Lord. Sirach 23:37. It is a great glory to follow the Lord, and to be received by him is long life.