Chapter 29

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. 2. – Lend to your neighbor in his time of need, and repay your neighbor in turn. 3. – Hold firmly to your word and be faithful to it – and you will find what you need at all times. 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; 6. – but when payment is due, he will delay and will answer reluctantly and complain about the times. 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: 9. – he will repay him with curses and insults, and instead of honor will repay dishonor. 10. – Many because of such deceit refrain from lending, fearing needlessly to suffer loss. 11. – But be compassionate to the poor and do not delay to give him alms; 12. – for the sake of the commandment help the poor, and in his need do not send him away empty. 13. – Spend your silver for your brother and friend, and do not let it rust away under a stone to your ruin; 14. – arrange your treasure according to the commandments of the Most High, and it will bring you more benefit than gold; 15. – store mercy in your treasuries, and it will deliver you from all misfortune: 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. 18. – Do not forget the kindness of your guarantor; for he gave his life for you. 19. – A sinner will ruin the fortune of his guarantor, and the ungrateful will abandon his rescuer in his heart. 20. – Guaranteeing has brought ruin upon many who were well-off and shook them like a wave of the sea; 21. – it has expelled mighty men from their homes, and they wandered among foreign nations. 22. – A sinner who takes guaranteeing upon himself and seeks profit will fall into litigation. 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. 25. – Better is the life of a poor man under a thatched roof than luxurious feasts in the houses of others. 26. – Be content with little as with much. 27. – A wretched life is to wander from house to house, and where you settle, you will not dare even to open your mouth; 28. – you will serve food and drink without gratitude, and moreover will hear something bitter: 29. – “Come here, stranger, prepare the table, and if you have something, feed me”; 30. – “Go away, stranger, for an honored guest: my brother has come to visit, my house is needed”. 31. – It is hard for a man of feeling to be reproached for lodging in a house and blamed for borrowing.