Chapter Twenty-Nine

Lend to your neighbor in his time of need and repay your neighbor in turn – and you will always find what you need. Be compassionate to the poor. Arrange your treasure according to the commandments of the Most High, and it will bring you more benefit than gold laid up for storage. Be cautious regarding guarantees and those who guarantee. Be content with little, but what is your own: do not look with greed upon much, but what is another’s.

Sirach 29:1. – He who shows mercy lends to his neighbor, and he who sustains him with his hand keeps the commandments. Sirach 29:2. – Lend to your neighbor in his time of need, and repay your neighbor in turn. Sirach 29:3. – Hold firmly to your word and be faithful to it – and you will find what you need at all times. Sirach 29:4. – Many regarded a loan as a windfall and caused trouble to those who helped them. 4. A windfall for himself.

Sirach 29:5. – Until he receives, he will kiss his hand and use soft words about his neighbor’s money; Sirach 29:6. – but when payment is due, he will delay and will answer reluctantly and complain about the times. Sirach 29:7. – If he is able, he will barely bring half – and will consider this a windfall; 7. Will consider a windfall, that is, will think that for the creditor even the part of the debt that the debtor has repaid is already a windfall.

Sirach 29:8. – but if he is unable, the moneylender has lost his money and without cause acquired an enemy in him: Sirach 29:9. – he will repay him with curses and insults, and instead of honor will repay dishonor. Sirach 29:10. – Many because of such deceit refrain from lending, fearing needlessly to suffer loss. Sirach 29:11. – But be compassionate to the poor and do not delay to give him alms; Sirach 29:12. – for the sake of the commandment help the poor, and in his need do not send him away empty. Sirach 29:13. – Spend your silver for your brother and friend, and do not let it rust away under a stone to your ruin; Sirach 29:14. – arrange your treasure according to the commandments of the Most High, and it will bring you more benefit than gold; Sirach 29:15. – store mercy in your treasuries, and it will deliver you from all misfortune: Sirach 29:16. – it will protect you better than a strong shield and firm spear against the enemy. 15–16. Store in your treasuries what is to serve as alms to your neighbor, and this alms will be for you the most reliable bulwark of your bodily and spiritual welfare (Matt 7:2).

Sirach 29:17. – A good man will guarantee for his neighbor, but he who has lost shame will abandon him. Sirach 29:18. – Do not forget the kindness of your guarantor; for he gave his life for you. Sirach 29:19. – A sinner will ruin the fortune of his guarantor, and the ungrateful will abandon his rescuer in his heart. Sirach 29:20. – Guaranteeing has brought ruin upon many who were well-off and shook them like a wave of the sea; Sirach 29:21. – it has expelled mighty men from their homes, and they wandered among foreign nations. Sirach 29:22. – A sinner who takes guaranteeing upon himself and seeks profit will fall into litigation. Sirach 29:23. – Help your neighbor according to your strength, and be careful lest you fall into the same. 17–23. Guaranteeing is the same kind of alms, but one should act so that this alms does not turn to harm for the giver and the one receiving it.

Sirach 29:24. – The chief necessities of life are water and bread, clothing and a house that covers nakedness. Sirach 29:25. – Better is the life of a poor man under a thatched roof than luxurious feasts in the houses of others. Sirach 29:26. – Be content with little as with much. Sirach 29:27. – A wretched life is to wander from house to house, and where you settle, you will not dare even to open your mouth; Sirach 29:28. – you will serve food and drink without gratitude, and moreover will hear something bitter: Sirach 29:29. – “Come here, stranger, prepare the table, and if you have something, feed me”; Sirach 29:30. – “Go away, stranger, for an honored guest: my brother has come to visit, my house is needed”. Sirach 29:31. – It is hard for a man of feeling to be reproached for lodging in a house and blamed for borrowing.