Ecclesiasticus 3

¹The children of wisdom are the Church of the just: and their nation, obedience and love.

²Hear your father's judgement o children, and so do that you may be saved.

³For God hath honoured the father in the children: and inquiring of the mother's judgement, hath confirmed it upon the children.

⁴He that loveth God, praying shall obtain for sins, and shall refrain himself from them, and shall be heard in the prayer of days.

⁵And as he that gathereth treasure, so he also that honoureth his mother.

⁶He that honoureth his father, shall have joy in children, and in the day of his prayer he shall be heard.

⁷He that honoureth his father, shall live the longer life: & he that obeyeth the father, shall refresh the mother.

⁸He that feareth our Lord honoureth his parents, and as his lords he will serve them that begat him.

⁹In work and word, & all patience honour thy father,

¹⁰that blessing may come upon thee from him, & his blessing may remain in the later end.

¹¹The father's blessing establisheth the houses of the children: but the mother's curse rooteth up the foundation.

¹²Glory not in the contumely of thy father: for his confusion is no glory to thee.

¹³For the glory of a man is by the honour of his father, and the father without honour is the dishonour of the son.

¹⁴Son receive the old age of thy father, and make him not sorrowful in his life:

¹⁵and if he fail in understanding, pardon him, and despise him not in thy strength: for the alms to the father shall not be in oblivion.

¹⁶For good shall be restored thee for the sin of thy mother,

¹⁷and in justice it shall be builded to thee, and in the day of tribulation there shall be remembrance of thee: and as ice in the clear weather shall thy sins melt away.

¹⁸Of what an evil fame is he, that forsaketh his father: and he is cursed of God, that doth exasperate his mother.

¹⁹Son do thy works in meekness, and thou shalt be beloved above the glory of men.

²⁰The greater thou art, humble thyself in all things, and thou shalt find grace before God:

²¹because the might of God only is great, and he is honoured of the humble.

²²Seek not things higher than thyself, and search not things stronger than thy hability: but the things that God hath commanded thee, think on them always, and in many of his works be not curious.

²³For it is not necessary for thee, to see with thine eyes those things that are hid.

²⁴In superfluous things search not many ways, and in many of his works thou shalt not be curious.

²⁵For very many things are shewed to thee above the understanding of men.

²⁶Many also have their suspicion supplanted, and have held their senses in vanity.

²⁷A hard heart shall fare ill in the later end, and he that loveth danger, shall perish in it.

²⁸A heart that goeth two ways, shall not have success, and the perverse of heart shall be scandalized in them.

²⁹A wicked heart shall be laden with sorrows, and the sinner will add to commit sin.

³⁰To the synagogue of the proud there shall be no health: for the shrub of sin shall be rooted up in them, and it shall not be perceived.

³¹The heart of the wise is understood in wisdom, and a good ear will hear wisdom with all desire.

³²A wise heart, and that which hath understanding will abstain it-self from sins, and in the works of justice shall have success.

³³Water quencheth burning fire, and alms resisteth sins:

³⁴and God is the beholder of him that rendereth grace: he remembereth him afterward, and in the time of his fall he shall find a sure stay.