Part 460 (1/2)

40:26. Riches and strength lift up the heart: but above these is the fear of the Lord.

40:27. There is no want in the fear of the Lord, and it needeth not to seek for help.

40:28. The fear of the Lord is like a paradise of blessing, and they have covered it above all glory.

40:29. My son, in thy lifetime be not indigent: for it is better to die than to want.

40:30. The life of him that looketh toward another man's table is not to be counted a life: for he feedeth his soul with another man's meat.

40:31. But a man, well instructed and taught, will look to himself.

40:32. Begging will be sweet in the mouth of the unwise, but in his belly there shall burn a fire.

Ecclesiasticus Chapter 41

Of the remembrance of death: of an evil and of a good name: of what things we ought to be ashamed.

41:1. O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that hath peace in his possessions!

41:2. To a man that is at rest, and whose ways are prosperous in all things, and that is yet able to take meat!

41:3. O death thy sentence is welcome to the man that is in need, and to him whose strength faileth:

41:4. Who is in a decrepit age, and that is in care about all things, and to the distrustful that loseth patience!

41:5. Fear not the sentence of death. Remember what things have been before thee, and what shall come after thee: this sentence is from the Lord upon all flesh.

41:6. And what shall come upon thee by the good pleasure of the most High? whether ten, or a hundred, or a thousand years.

41:7. For among the dead there is no accusing of life.

41:8. The children of sinners become children of abominations, and they that converse near the houses of the unG.o.dly.

41:9. The inheritance of the children of sinners shall perish, and with their posterity shall be a perpetual reproach.

41:10. The children will complain of an unG.o.dly father, because for his sake they are in reproach.

41:11. Woe to you, unG.o.dly men, who have forsaken the law of the most high Lord.

41:12. And if you be born, you shall be born in malediction: and if you die, in malediction shall be your portion.

41:13. All things that are of the earth, shall return into the earth: so the unG.o.dly shall from malediction to destruction.

41:14. The mourning of men is about their body, but the name of the unG.o.dly shall be blotted out.

41:15. Take care of a good name: for this shall continue with thee, more than a thousand treasures precious and great.

41:16. A good life hath its number of days: but a good name shall continue for ever.

41:17. 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?