Sirach · WEB-C
Sirach
10
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A wise judge will instruct his people. The government of a man of understanding will be well ordered. As is the judge of his people, so are his officials. As the city’s ruler is, so are all those who dwell in it. An undisciplined king will destroy his people. A city will be established through the understanding of the powerful. The government of the earth is in the Lord’s hand. In due time, he will raise up over it the right person at the right time. A man’s prosperity is in the Lord’s hand. He will lay his honor upon the person of the scribe. Don’t be angry with your neighbor for every wrong. Do nothing by works of violence. Pride is hateful before the Lord and men. Arrogance is abhorrent in the judgment of both. Sovereignty is transferred from nation to nation because of injustice, violence, and greed for money. Why are dirt and ashes proud? Because in life, my body decays. A long disease mocks the physician. The king of today will die tomorrow. For when a man is dead, he will inherit maggots, vermin, and worms. It is the beginning of pride when a man departs from the Lord. His heart has departed from him who made him. For the beginning of pride is sin. He who keeps it will pour out abomination. For this cause the Lord brought upon them strange calamities and utterly overthrew them. The Lord cast down the thrones of rulers and set the lowly in their place. The Lord plucked up the roots of nations and planted the lowly in their place. The Lord overthrew the lands of nations and destroyed them to the foundations of the earth. He took some of them away and destroyed them, and made their memory to cease from the earth. Pride has not been created for men, nor wrathful anger for the offspring of women. Whose offspring has honor? Human offspring who fear the Lord. Whose offspring has no honor? Human offspring who break the commandments. In the midst of kindred he who rules them has honor. Those who fear the Lord have honor in his eyes. The rich man, the honorable, and the poor all glory in the fear of the Lord. It is not right to dishonor a poor man who has understanding. It is not fitting to glorify a man who is a sinner. The prince, the judge, and the mighty man will be honored. There is not one of them greater than he who fears the Lord. Free men will minister to a wise servant. A man who has knowledge will not complain. Don’t flaunt your wisdom in doing your work. Don’t boast in the time of your distress. Better is he who labors and abounds in all things, than he who boasts and lacks bread. My son, glorify your soul in humility, and ascribe to yourself honor according to your worthiness. Who will justify him who sins against his own soul? Who will honor him who dishonors his own life? A poor man is honored for his knowledge. A rich man is honored for his riches. But he who is honored in poverty, how much more in riches? He who is dishonored in riches, how much more in poverty?
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Notes · Haydock (1859, public domain)20 notes
Notes in English 19th-century Catholic commentary by Fr. George Leo Haydock, shown as published.
These notes keep the polemics of their time: some speak harshly of the Jewish people or of other Christians. The Church teaches otherwise today. The Jewish people may not be blamed for the death of Christ (Nostra Aetate 4; Catechism 597–598), and Christians of other communities are our brothers and sisters in the Lord (Unitatis Redintegratio 3). Christian unity
Sirach 10:1
Ver. 1. Judge. Gr. "instruct." Ch. --- The example of rulers is very powerful. W.
↑ 1Sirach 10:2
Ver. 2. Therein. Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis. Claud. --- As a whole city is infected with the vices of princes, so it may be corrected by their good behaviour, ( continentiâ. ) Cic. Leg. 3.
↑ 2Sirach 10:3
Ver. 3. Rulers. All who wish to live under just kings. Prov. xxix. 4.
↑ 3Sirach 10:4
Ver. 4. It, as he did David. Job xxxiv. 30. Dan. ii. 20. C.
↑ 4Sirach 10:5
Ver. 5. The scribe. That is, the man that is wise and learned in the law. Ch. --- It also denotes an officer. Judg. v. 14. God must give light and success. C.
↑ 5Sirach 10:6
Ver. 6. Injury, out of revenge. H. Lev. xix. 18. --- "Cæsar used to forget nothing but injuries."
Cic. Ligar. --- This at least is the character of a great man. S. Aug. ep. 138. and 54.
↑ 6Sirach 10:7
Ver. 7. Men. It invades the rights of the former, and disturbs the repose of mankind. --- All. Gr.
is obscure, "and from both proceeds injustice;" (C.) or, "it shall act unjustly."
H. --- Pride attacks both God and man. Grot.
↑ 7Sirach 10:8
Ver. 8. Deceits. Hence kingdoms are changed. W. --- The ambition and luxury of subjects (Cato) and the negligence of the rulers, bring on confusion. S. Aug.
de Civ. Dei. v. 13.
↑ 8Sirach 10:9
Ver. 9. Man. The desire of plunder, or of glory, occasions revolutions. H. ---
Covetousness is the root of all evils, and causes people to abandon the faith. 1
Tim. vi. 10. W.
↑ 9Sirach 10:10
Ver. 10. Bowels, and would have no compassion for others or for himself.
Some Gr. copies leave out as far as sale, but Grabe replaces the omission from the Comp.
↑ 10Sirach 10:14
Ver. 14. Beginning, or summit; arche. C. --- Thus Lucifer and Adam fell by pride. S. Aug. de Civ. Dei. xii. 6. All sin, being a contempt of God, springs from pride, (Prosper. contemp. iii. 3.) and from an inordinate self-love. C.
↑ 14Sirach 10:15
Ver. 15. Sin, because man abandons God's law, and falls into all misery. W. ---
The proud easily yield to all sorts of iniquity. M.
↑ 15Sirach 10:16
Ver. 16. Disgraced. Gr. "hath taken an exemplary vengeance, and hath," &c. H.
--- Them, as he did the giants, Sodom, Nabuchodonosor, &c.
↑ 16Sirach 10:17
Ver. 17. Stead. Lu. i. 52. C. --- "Thales being asked what was difficult to be seen; replied, a tyrant grown old." Laert. 1.
↑ 17Sirach 10:18
Ver. 18. Nations, the Chanaanites, who submitted to the yoke: or rather the Hebrews. C. --- Gr.
"instead of them."
↑ 18Sirach 10:19
Ver. 19. Foundation: overturning Sodom, Babylon, and even Jerusalem, for their sins. C.
↑ 19Sirach 10:28
Ver. 28. Wise. When Diogenes was exposed to sale, and asked what he could do, he answered, "I know how to command free men." Laert. 6. --- Joseph and Daniel obtained authority by their wise conduct. C.
↑ 28Sirach 10:31
Ver. 31. Desert. Let not avarice deprive thee of the necessities of life, nor do any thing beneath thy dignity. Lu. xxi. 19.
↑ 31Sirach 10:33
Ver. 33. Glorified. Gr. "honoured on account of his knowledge, and the rich is, "
&c. H.
↑ 33Sirach 10:34
Ver. 34. And. Greek omits this sentence: (C.) yet Grabe has, And the man who is without honour in wealth, how much more so will he be in poverty? H. Eccle.
vii. 12.
↑ 34License: Notes by Fr. George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), from the Douay-Rheims Bible with Haydock's commentary (first ed. Thomas Haydock, Manchester/Dublin, 1811–1814; New York: Edward Dunigan & Brother, 1859); New Testament notes compiled with Fr. Benedict Rayment. Public domain. Digital text: "The Haydock Bible", Internet Archive (archive.org/details/TheHaydockBible), uploaded 2011 under the Public Domain Mark. · Credits and licenses