The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Ecclesiaticus 23
1 O Lord, Father and Master of my life,
don’t abandon me to their counsel.
Don’t let me fall because of them.
2 Who will set scourges over my thought,
and a discipline of wisdom over my
heart, that they spare me not for my errors,
and not overlook their sins?
3O ther wise my errors might be multiplied,
and my sins abound, I fall before my adversaries,
and my enemy rejoice over me.†
4 O Lord, Father and God of my life,
don’t give me a haughty eyes,‡
5 and turn away evil desire from me.§
6 Let neither gluttony nor lust overtake me.
Don’t give me over to a shameless mind.
7 Listen, my children, to the discipline of
the mouth. He who keeps it will not be caught.
8 The sinner will be overpowered through
his lips. By them, the insulter and the arrogant
will stumble.
9 Don’t accustom your mouth to an oath,
and don’t be accustomed to naming
the Holy One,
10 for as a servant who is continually
scourged will not lack bruises,
so he also who swears and continually
utters the Name will not be cleansed
from sin.
11 A man of many oaths will be filled with
iniquity. The scourge will not depart from his
house. If he offends, his sin will be upon him.
If he disregards it, he has sinned doubly.
If he has sworn falsely, he will not be justified,
for his house will befilled with calamities.
12 There is a manner of speech that is
clothed with death. Let it not be found
in the heritage of Jacob, for all these
things will be far from the godly, and
they will not wallow in sins.
13 Don’t accustom your mouth to gross
rudeness, for it involves sinful speech.
14 Remember your father and your
mother, for you sit in the midst of great men,
that you be not forgetful before them,
and become a fool by your bad habit;
so you may wish that you had not been
born, and curse the day of your birth.
15 A man who is accustomed to abusive
language won’t be corrected all the
days of his life.
16 Two sorts of people multiply sins,
and the third will bring wrath:
a hot passion, like a burning fire,
will not be quenched until it is consumed;
a fornicator in the body of his flesh
will never cease until he has burned
out the fire.
17 All bread is sweet to a fornicator.
He will not cease until he dies.
18 A man who goes astray from his own
marriage bed says in his heart, “Who sees me?
Darkness is around me, and the walls hide
me. No one sees me. Of whom am I afraid?
The Most High will not remember my sins.
19 The eyes of men are his terror.
He doesn’t know that the eyes of
the Lord are ten thousand times
brighter than the sun, seeing all
the ways of men, and looking
in to secret places.
20 All things were known to him before
they were created, and also after they
were completed.
21 This man will be punished in the streets
of the city. He will be seized where
he least expects it.
22 So also is a wife who leaves her husband,
and produces an heir by another man.
23 For first, she was disobedient in the law
of the Most High. Second, she trespassed
against her own husband. Third, she played
the adulteress in fornication, and had
children by another man.
24 She shall be brought out into the
congregation. Her punishment will
extend to her children.
25 Her children will not take root.
Her branches will bear no fruit.
26 She will leave her memory for a curse.
Her reproach won’t be blotted out.
27 And those who are left behind will know
that there is nothing better than the
fear of the Lord, and nothing sweeter
than to heed the commandments of the Lord.
28 †