Sirach - Chapter 10

Passage

A wise judge shall judge his people, and the government of a prudent man shall be steady. As the judge of the people is himself, so also are his ministers: and what manner of man the ruler of a city is, such also are they that dwell therein. An unwise king shall be the ruin of his people: and cities shall be inhabited through the prudence of the rulers. The power of the earth is in the hand of God, and in his time he will raise up a profitable ruler over it. The prosperity of man is in the hand of God, and upon the person of the scribe he shall lay his honor. Remember not any injury done you by your neighbor, and do nothing by deeds of injury. Pride is hateful before God and men: and all iniquity of nations is execrable. A kingdom is translated from one people to another, because of injustices, and wrongs, and injuries, and divers deceits. But nothing is more wicked than the covetous man. Why is earth, and ashes proud? There is not a more wicked thing than to love money: for such a one sets even his own soul to sale: because while he lives he has cast away his bowels. All power is of short life. A long sickness is troublesome to the physician. The physician cuts off a short sickness: so also a king is to day, and to morrow he shall die. For when a man shall die, he shall inherit serpents, and beasts, and worms. The beginning of the pride of man, is to fall off from God: Because his heart is departed from him that made him: for pride is the beginning of all sin: he that holds it, shall be filled with maledictions, and it shall ruin him in the end. Therefore has the Lord disgraced the assemblies of the wicked, and has utterly destroyed them. God has overturned the thrones of proud princes, and has set up the meek in their stead. God has made the roots of proud nations to wither, and has planted the humble of these nations. The Lord has overthrown the lands of the Gentiles, and has destroyed them even to the foundation. He has made some of them to wither away, and has destroyed them, and has made the memory of them to cease from the earth. God has abolished the memory of the proud, and has preserved the memory of them that are humble in mind. Pride was not made for men: nor wrath for the race of women. That seed of men shall be honored, which fears God: but that seed shall be dishonored, which transgresses the commandments of the Lord. In the midst of brethren their chief is honorable: so shall they that fear the Lord, be in his eyes. The fear of God is the glory of the rich, and of the honorable, and of the poor. Despise not a just man that is poor, and do not magnify a sinful man that is rich. The great man, and the judge, and the mighty is in honor: and there is none greater than he that fears God. They that are free shall serve a servant that is wise: and a man that is prudent and well instructed will not murmur when he is reproved; and he that is ignorant, shall not be honored. Extol not yourself in doing your work, and linger not in the time of distress; Better is he that labors, and abounds in all things, than he that boasts himself and wants bread. My son, keep your soul in meekness, and give it honor according to its desert. Who will justify him that sins against his own soul? and who will honor him that dishonors his own soul? The poor man is glorified by his discipline and fear, and there is a man that is honored for his wealth. But he that is glorified in poverty, how much more in wealth? and he that is glorified in wealth, let him fear poverty.