Ecclesiasticus, 14

1. Blessed is anyone who has not sinned in speech and who needs feel no remorse for sins.

1. Whoever touches pitch will be defiled, and whoever associates with a proud man will become like him.

2. Blessed is anyone whose conscience brings no reproach and who has never given up hope.

2. Do not lift a weight beyond your strength, nor associate with a man mightier and richer than you. How can the clay pot associate with the iron kettle? The pot will strike against it, and will itself be broken.

3. Wealth is not the right thing for the niggardly, and what use are possessions to the covetous?

3. A rich man does wrong, and he even adds reproaches; a poor man suffers wrong, and he must add apologies.

4. Whoever hoards by stinting himself is hoarding for others, and others will live sumptuously on his riches.

4. A rich man will exploit you if you can be of use to him, but if you are in need he will forsake you.

5. If someone is mean to himself, whom does he benefit? he does not even enjoy what is his own.

5. If you own something, he will live with you; he will drain your resources and he will not care.

6. No one is meaner than the person who is mean to himself, this is how his wickedness repays him.

6. When he needs you he will deceive you, he will smile at you and give you hope. He will speak to you kindly and say, "What do you need?"

7. If he does any good, he does it unintentionally, and in the end he himself reveals his wickedness.

7. He will shame you with his foods, until he has drained you two or three times; and finally he will deride you. Should he see you afterwards, he will forsake you, and shake his head at you.

8. Wicked the person who has an envious eye, averting his face, and careless of others' lives.

8. Take care not to be led astray, and not to be humiliated in your feasting.

9. The eye of the grasping is not content with what he has, greed shrivels up the soul.

9. When a powerful man invites you, be reserved; and he will invite you the more often.

10. The miser is grudging of bread, there is famine at his table.

10. Do not push forward, lest you be repulsed; and do not remain at a distance, lest you be forgotten.

11. My child, treat yourself as well as you can afford, and bring worthy offerings to the Lord.

11. Do not try to treat him as an equal, nor trust his abundance of words; for he will test you through much talk, and while he smiles he will be examining you.

12. Remember that death will not delay, and that you have never seen Sheol's contract.

12. Cruel is he who does not keep words to himself; he will not hesitate to injure or to imprison.

13. Be kind to your friend before you die, treat him as generously as you can afford.

13. Keep words to yourself and be very watchful, for you are walking about with your own downfall.

14. Do not refuse yourself the good things of today, do not let your share of what is lawfully desired pass you by.

14.

15. Will you not have to leave your fortune to another, and the fruit of your labour to be divided by lot?

15. Every creature loves its like, and every person his neighbor;

16. Give and receive, enjoy yourself -- there are no pleasures to be found in Sheol.

16. all living beings associate by species, and a man clings to one like himself.

17. Like clothes, every body will wear out, the age -- old law is, 'Everyone must die.'

17. What fellowship has a wolf with a lamb? No more has a sinner with a godly man.

18. Like foliage growing on a bushy tree, some leaves falling, others growing, so are the generations of flesh and blood: one dies, another is born.

18. What peace is there between a hyena and a dog? And what peace between a rich man and a poor man?

19. Every achievement rots away and perishes, and with it goes its author.

19. Wild asses in the wilderness are the prey of lions; likewise the poor are pastures for the rich.

20. Blessed is anyone who meditates on wisdom, and reasons with intelligence,

20. Humility is an abomination to a proud man; likewise a poor man is an abomination to a rich one.

21. who studies her ways in his heart, and ponders her secrets.

21. When a rich man totters, he is steadied by friends, but when a humble man falls, he is even pushed away by friends.

22. He pursues her like a hunter, and lies in wait by her path;

22. If a rich man slips, his helpers are many; he speaks unseemly words, and they justify him. If a humble man slips, they even reproach him; he speaks sensibly, and receives no attention.

23. he peeps in at her windows, and listens at her doors;

23. When the rich man speaks all are silent, and they extol to the clouds what he says. When the poor man speaks they say, "Who is this fellow?" And should he stumble, they even push him down.

24. he lodges close to her house, and fixes his peg in her walls;

24. Riches are good if they are free from sin, and poverty is evil in the opinion of the ungodly.

25. he pitches his tent at her side, and lodges in an excellent lodging;

25. A man's heart changes his countenance, either for good or for evil.

26. he sets his children in her shade, and camps beneath her branches;

26. The mark of a happy heart is a cheerful face, but to devise proverbs requires painful thinking.

27. he is sheltered by her from the heat, and in her glory he makes his home.

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