SAB Ecclesiasticus / Sirach 2

Ecclesiasticus / Sirach

Woe to those who don't believe God

2:1-23

¹ Son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation.

² Humble thy heart, and endure: incline thy ear, and receive the words of understanding: and make not haste in the time of clouds.

³Wait on God with patience: join thyself to God, and endure, that thy life may be increased in the latter end.

Be patient with God.

⁴ Take all that shall be brought upon thee: and in thy sorrow endure, and in thy humiliation keep patience.

⁵ For gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation.

⁶Believe God, and he will recover thee: and direct thy way, and trust in him. Keep his fear, and grow old therein.

Believe, trust, and fear God.

⁷ Ye that fear the Lord, wait for his mercy: and go not aside from him, lest ye fall.

⁸Ye that fear the Lord, believe him: and your reward shall not be made void.

Fear God and you'll be rewarded.

⁹ Ye that fear the Lord, hope in him: and mercy shall come to you for your delight.

¹⁰ Ye that fear the Lord, love him, and your hearts shall be enlightened.

¹¹ My children behold the generations of men: and know ye that no one hath hoped in the Lord, and hath been confounded.

No one who hopes in God is ever disappointed.

¹² For who hath continued in his commandment, and hath been forsaken? or who hath called upon him, and he despised him?

¹³ For God is compassionate and merciful, and will forgive sins in the day of tribulation: and he is a protector to all that seek him in truth.

¹⁴ Woe to them that are of a double heart and to wicked lips, and to the hands that do evil, and to the sinner that goeth on the earth two ways.

¹⁵Woe to them that are fainthearted, who believe not God: and therefore they shall not be protected by him.

Woe to them that don't believe in God.

¹⁶ Woe to them that have lost patience, and that have forsaken the right ways, and have gone aside into crooked ways.

¹⁷ And what will they do, when the Lord shall begin to examine?

¹⁸ They that fear the Lord, will not be incredulous to his word: and they that love him, will keep his way.

¹⁹ They that fear the Lord, will seek after the things that are well pleasing to him: and they that love him, shall be filled with his law.

²⁰ They that fear the Lord, will prepare their hearts, and in his sight will sanctify their souls.

²¹They that fear the Lord, keep his Commandments, and will have patience even until his visitation,

Those who fear God keep his commandments.

²² Saying: If we do not penance, we shall fall into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of men.

²³ For according to his greatness, so also is his mercy with him.