Sirach - Chapter 41

Passage

O death, how bitter is the remembrance of you to a man that has peace in his possessions! To a man that is at rest, and whose ways are prosperous in all things, and that is yet able to take meat! O death your sentence is welcome to the man that is in need, and to him whose strength fails: Who is in a decrepit age, and that is in care about all things, and to the distrustful that loses patience! Fear not the sentence of death. Remember what things have been before you, and what shall come after you: this sentence is from the Lord upon all flesh. And what shall come upon you by the good pleasure of the most High? whether ten, or a hundred, or a thousand years. For among the dead there is no accusing of life. The children of sinners become children of abominations, and they that converse near the houses of the ungodly. The inheritance of the children of sinners shall perish, and with their posterity shall be a perpetual reproach. The children will complain of an ungodly father, because for his sake they are in reproach. Woe to you, ungodly men, who have forsaken the law of the most high Lord. And if you are born, you shall be born in malediction: and if you die, in malediction shall be your portion. All things that are of the earth, shall return into the earth: so the ungodly shall from malediction to destruction. The mourning of men is about their body, but the name of the ungodly shall be blotted out. Take care of a good name: for this shall continue with you, more than a thousand treasures precious and great. A good life has its number of days: but a good name shall continue for ever. My children, keep discipline in peace: for wisdom that is hid, and a treasure that is not seen, what profit is there in them both? Better is the man that hides his folly, than the man that hides his wisdom. Therefore have a shame of these things I am now going to speak of. For it is not good to keep all shamefacedness: and all things do not please all men in opinion. Be ashamed of fornication before father and mother: and of a lie before a governor and a man in power: Of an offence before a prince, and a judge: of iniquity before a congregation and a people: Of injustice before a companion and friend: and in regard to the place where you dwell, Of theft, and of the truth of God, and the covenant: of leaning with your elbow over meat, and of deceit in giving and taking: Of silence before them that salute you: of looking upon a harlot: and of turning away your face from your kinsman. Turn not away your face from your neighbor, and of taking away a portion and not restoring. Gaze not upon another man's wife, and be not inquisitive after his handmaid, and approach not her bed. Be ashamed of upbraiding speeches before friends: and after you have given, upbraid not.