Ecclesiasticus / Sirach - The Old Testament

¹ Vain and deceptive hopes are for the foolish, and dreams lend wings to fools.

² As well clutch at shadows and chase the wind as put any faith in dreams.

³ Dreams are no different from mirrors; confronting a face, the reflection of that face.

⁴ What can be cleansed by uncleanness, what can be verified by falsehood?

⁵ Divinations, auguries and dreams are nonsense, like the fantasies of a pregnant woman.

⁶ Unless sent as emissaries from the Most High, do not give them a thought;

⁷ for dreams have led many astray, and those who relied on them have come to grief.

⁸ Fulfilling the Law requires no such falsehood, and wisdom is perfected in veracity.

⁹ A much travelled man knows many things, and a man of great experience will talk sound sense.

¹⁰ Someone who has never had his trials knows little; but the travelled man is master of every situation.

¹¹ I have seen many things on my travels, I have understood more than I can put into words.

¹² I have often been in danger of death, but I have been spared, and this is why:

¹³ the spirit of those who fear the Lord can survive, for their hope is in someone with power to save them.

¹⁴ No one who fears the Lord need ever hesitate, or ever be daunted, since the Lord is his hope.

¹⁵ Happy the soul of one who fears the Lord. On whom does he rely? Who supports him?

¹⁶ The eyes of the Lord watch over those who love him, he is their powerful protection and their strong support, their screen from the desert wind, their shelter from the midday sun, a guard against stumbling, an assurance against a fall.

¹⁷ He revives the spirit and brightens the eyes, he gives health, life and blessing.

¹⁸ The sacrifice of an offering unjustly acquired is a mockery; the gifts of the impious are unacceptable.

¹⁹ The Most High takes no pleasure in offerings from the godless, multiplying sacrifices will not gain pardon for sin.

²⁰ Offering sacrifice from the property of the poor is as bad as slaughtering a son before his father's eyes.

²¹ A meagre diet is the very life of the poor, to deprive them of it is to commit murder.

²² To take away a fellow-man's livelihood is to kill him, to deprive an employee of his wages is to shed blood.

²³ If one person builds while another pulls down, what will they get out of it but trouble?

²⁴ If one person prays and another calls down a curse, to which one's voice is the Master going to listen?

²⁵ If someone washes after touching a corpse, and then touches it again, what is the good of his washing?

²⁶ Just so with someone who fasts for sin, and then goes and commits it again. Who is going to hear that person's prayer? What is the good of the self-abasement?