Ecclesiasticus 37

¹Every friend will say: I also have joined friendship: but there is a friend, in name only a friend. Doth there not sorrow remain even to death?

²But a companion and friend will be turned to enmity.

³O most wicked presumption, whence wast thou created to cover the dry land with malice, and with the deceitfulness thereof?

⁴A companion is pleasant with his friend in delectations, and in the time of tribulation he will be an adversary.

⁵A companion is sorry with his friend for his belly's sake, and he will take a shield against the enemy.

⁶Forget not thy friend in thy mind, and be not unmindful of him in thy riches.

⁷Consult not with him which betrayeth, and hide thy counsel from them that envy thee.

⁸Every counseller uttereth counsel, but there is a counseller in himself.

⁹From such a counseller keep thy soul. First know what his necessity is: for he will devise to his own mind:

¹⁰lest perhaps he thrust a sharp stake into the ground and say to thee:

¹¹Thy way is good; and stand over against thee to see what will befall thee.

¹²With an irreligious man treat not of holiness, & with the unjust of justice, and with a woman of the thing whereof she is jealous: with a fearful man of war, with a merchant of traffic, with a buyer of selling, with an envious man of giving thanks,

¹³with the impious of piety, with the unhonest of honesty, with the field labourer of all work,

¹⁴with him that worketh by the year of the ending of the year, with a slothful servant of much working: attend not to these in all counsel.

¹⁵But be continual with a holy man, whomsoever thou shalt know to observe the fear of God,

¹⁶whose soul is according to thine own soul: and who when thou shalt stumble in the dark, will be sorry for thee.

¹⁷And establish with thyself an heart of good counsel: for there is none other thing more worth to thee than it.

¹⁸The soul of a holy man uttereth sometime true things, more than seven watchmen that sit in a high place to watch.

¹⁹And in all these beseech the Highest, that he direct thy way in truth.

²⁰Before all works let a true word go before thee, and stable counsel before every act.

²¹A wicked word shall change the heart: out of which, rise four parts, good, and evil, life, and death: and the tongue is a continual ruler of them. There is a subtile man teacher of many, & to his own soul he is unprofitable.

²²A cunning man hath taught many, and is sweet to his own soul.

²³He that speaketh sophistically, is odious: in every thing he shall be defrauded.

²⁴Grace is not given him of our Lord: for he is defrauded of all wisdom.

²⁵There is a wise man, wise to his own soul: and the fruit of his understanding is laudable.

²⁶A wise man teacheth his people, and the fruits of his understanding are faithful.

²⁷A wise man shall be filled with blessings, and they that see will praise him.

²⁸The life of a man is in the number of days: but the days of Israel are innumerable.

²⁹A wise man in the people shall inherit honour, and his name shall live for ever.

³⁰Son in thy life prove thy soul: & if it be wicked, give it not power:

³¹for all things are not expedient for all, and every kind pleaseth not every soul.

³²Be not greedy in all feasting, and pour not out thyself upon all meat:

³³for in many meats there shall be infirmity, and greediness shall approach even to choler.

³⁴Because of surfeit many have died: but he that is abstinent, shall add life.