HOLY BIBLE: Sirach 42 (original) (raw)

1 ἀπὸ δευτερώσεως καὶ λόγου ἀκοῆς καὶ ἀπὸ καλύψεως λόγων κρυφίων καὶ ἔσῃ αἰσχυντηρὸς ἀληθινῶς καὶ εὑρίσκων χάριν ἔναντι παντὸς ἀνθρώπου μὴ περὶ τούτων αἰσχυνθῇς καὶ μὴ λάβῃς πρόσωπον τοῦ ἁμαρτάνειν 2 περὶ νόμου ὑψίστου καὶ διαθήκης καὶ περὶ κρίματος δικαιῶσαι τὸν ἀσεβῆ 3 περὶ λόγου κοινωνοῦ καὶ ὁδοιπόρων καὶ περὶ δόσεως κληρονομίας ἑταίρων 4 περὶ ἀκριβείας ζυγοῦ καὶ σταθμίων καὶ περὶ κτήσεως πολλῶν καὶ ὀλίγων 5 περὶ διαφόρου πράσεως ἐμπόρων καὶ περὶ παιδείας τέκνων πολλῆς καὶ οἰκέτῃ πονηρῷ πλευρὰν αἱμάξαι 6 ἐπὶ γυναικὶ πονηρᾷ καλὸν σφραγίς 7 καὶ ὅπου χεῖρες πολλαί κλεῖσον ὃ ἐὰν παραδιδῷς ἐν ἀριθμῷ καὶ σταθμῷ καὶ δόσις καὶ λῆμψις πάντα ἐν γραφῇ 8 περὶ παιδείας ἀνοήτου καὶ μωροῦ καὶ ἐσχατογήρως κρινομένου πρὸς νέους καὶ ἔσῃ πεπαιδευμένος ἀληθινῶς καὶ δεδοκιμασμένος ἔναντι παντὸς ζῶντος

1 Nor ever do thou repeat gossip to the betraying of another’s secret. If of such things thou art ashamed, shame thou shalt never feel, and thou shalt have all men’s good word besides.

And other dealings there are over which thou must never be abashed,[1] nor, through respect for any human person consent to wrong. 2 Such are, the law of the most High and his covenant; and right award, that gives the godless his due; 3 a matter between some partner of thine and strangers from far off, the apportioning of an inheritance among thy friends, 4 the trueness of weight and balance, profit overmuch or too little, 5 the exchange between buyer and seller, the strict punishing of children, the cudgelling of a wicked slave till he bleeds … 6 Thriftless wife if thou hast, seal is best. 7 Where many hands are at work, lock all away; part with nothing, till it be measured and weighed, and of all thy spending and receiving, written record kept … 8 Nor be thou abashed, when there is question of chastising reckless folly, and the complaints of old men against the young. So thou shalt shew prudence in all thy dealings, and win the good word of all.

1

Non duplices sermonem auditus de revelatione sermonis absconditi:
et eris vere sine confusione,
et invenies gratiam in conspectu omnium hominum.
Ne pro his omnibus confundaris,
et ne accipias personam ut delinquas:

2
de lege Altissimi, et testamento,
et de judicio justificare impium, 3
de verbo sociorum et viatorum,
et de datione hæreditatis amicorum, 4
de æqualitate stateræ et ponderum,
de acquisitione multorum et paucorum, 5
de corruptione emptionis et negotiatorum,
et de multa disciplina filiorum,
et servo pessimo latus sanguinare. 6
Super mulierem nequam bonum est signum. 7
Ubi manus multæ sunt, claude:
et quodcumque trades, numera et appende:
datum vero et acceptum omne describe. 8
De disciplina insensati et fatui,
et de senioribus qui judicantur ab adolescentibus:
et eris eruditus in omnibus,
et probabilis in conspectu omnium vivorum.

[1] vv. 1-8: Once more the text seems curiously confused. Verse 2 ought, judging by its form, to be a list of things we ought never to be ashamed of; ‘Concerning the law of the most High, and his covenant, and acquitting the guilty’ yields no tolerable sense. Verses 6, 7 look as if they had been displaced, and belonged to some quite different context. The explanation of verse 8 is perhaps to be found in Deut. 21.18.

[2] The Greek is just patient of the rendering given above; but the natural sense of all the versions is ‘Man’s wickedness is better than a woman who does good’—a sentiment which could have little meaning, even in the mouth of the most determined cynic. Probably the true text is lost in this passage; the Greek in verse 13 has ‘wickedness in woman’, and the Hebrew in verse 12 has ‘let her not shew her beauty to male eyes’.

[3] Literally, ‘and like a spark which is to consider’; the Greek is hardly more intelligible.

[4] Cf. 33.15.

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd