Part 461 (1/2)

42:11. Keep a sure watch over a shameless daughter: lest at anytime she make thee become a laughingstock to thy enemies, and a byword in the city, and a reproach among the people, and she make thee ashamed before all the mult.i.tude.

42:12. Behold not everybody's beauty: and tarry not among women.

42:13. For from garments cometh a moth, and from a woman the iniquity of a man.

42:14. For better is the iniquity of a man, than a woman doing a good turn, and a woman bringing shame and reproach.

Better is the iniquity, etc... That is, there is, commonly speaking, less danger to be apprehended to the soul from the churlishness, or injuries we receive from men, than from the flattering favours and familiarity of women.

42:15. I will now remember the works of the Lord, and I will declare the things I have seen. By the words of the Lord are his works.

42:16. The sun giving light hath looked upon all things, and full of the glory of the Lord is his work.

42:17. Hath not the Lord made the saints to declare all his wonderful works, which the Lord Almighty hath firmly settled to be established for his glory?

42:18. He hath searched out the deep, and the heart of men: and considered their crafty devices.

42:19. For the Lord knoweth all knowledge, and hath beheld the signs of the world, he declareth the things that are past, and the things that are to come, and revealeth the traces of hidden things.

42:20. No thought escapeth him, and no word can hide itself from him.

42:21. He hath beautified the glorious works of his wisdom: and he is from eternity to eternity, and to him nothing may be added,

42:22. Nor can he be diminished, and he hath no need of any counsellor.

42:23. O how desirable are all his works, and what we can know is but as a spark!

42:24. All these things live, and remain for ever, and for every use all things obey him.

42:25. All things are double, one against another, and he hath made nothing defective.

42:26. He hath established the good things of every one. And who shall be filled with beholding his glory?

Ecclesiasticus Chapter 43

The works of G.o.d are exceedingly glorious and wonderful: no man is able sufficiently to praise him.

43:1. The firmament on high is his beauty, the beauty of heaven with its glorious shew.

43:2. The sun when he appeareth shewing forth at his rising, an admirable instrument, the work of the most High.

43:3. At noon he burneth the earth, and who can abide his burning heat?

As one keeping a furnace in the works of heat:

43:4. The sun three times as much, burneth the mountains, breathing out fiery vapours, and s.h.i.+ning with his beams, he blindeth the eyes.

43:5. Great is the Lord that made him, and at his words he hath hastened his course.

43:6. And the moon in all in her season, is for a declaration of times and a sign of the world.