Ecclesiasticus 41

¹O Death how bitter is thy memory to a man that hath peace in his riches:

²to a man that is at rest, and whose ways are prosperous in all things, and that is yet able to take meat!

³O death, thy judgement is good to a needy man, and him that is diminished in strength,

⁴and faileth in age, and that is careful of all things, and to the incredulous, that loseth patience!

⁵Fear not the judgement of death. Remember what things have been before thee, and what come after thee: this is the judgement from our Lord to all flesh:

⁶and what shall come upon thee by the good pleasure of the Highest? Whether it be ten, or an hundred, or a thousand years.

⁷For in hell there is no accusing of life.

⁸The children of sinners become children of abominations, and they that converse near the houses of the impious.

⁹The inheritance of the children of sinners shall perish, and with their seed shall be continuance of reproach.

¹⁰The children complain of an impious father, because for him they are in reproach.

¹¹Woe to you ye impious men, which have forsaken the law of our Lord the Highest.

¹²And if ye be born, ye shall be born in malediction: and if ye die, in malediction shall be your portion.

¹³All things that are of the earth, shall return into the earth: so the impious from malediction to perdition.

¹⁴The mourning of men is in their body, but the name of the impious shall be clean wiped out.

¹⁵Have care of a good name: for this shall be more permanent to thee than a thousand treasures precious and great.

¹⁶There is a number of the days of a good life: but a good name shall continue for ever.

¹⁷Children, keep ye discipline in peace. For wisdom hid, and treasure not seen, what profit is there in them both?

¹⁸Better is the man that hideth his folly, than the man that hideth his wisdom.

¹⁹But yet have reverence to these things, which proceed from my mouth.

²⁰For it is not good to observe all shamefastness: & all things do not please all men in opinion.

²¹Be ashamed before father & before mother, of fornication: and before the president and before the mighty, of lying:

²²before the Prince, and before the judge, of offence: before the synagogue and the people, of iniquity:

²³before companion and friend, of injustice: and before the place where thou dwellest,

²⁴of theft, of the truth of God, and his testament: of leaning on the bread, and of reproof for the thing given and taken:

²⁵before them that salute thee, of silence: of beholding a woman that is an harlot: and of turning away thy countenance from thy kinsman.

²⁶Turn not away thy face from thy neighbour, & of taking away part & not restoring.

²⁷Behold not another man's wife, and search not his handmaid, neither stand by her bed.

²⁸Before friends, of opprobrious words: and when thou hast given, upbraid not.