Ecclesiasticus 5

¹ Don’t set your heart upon your goods. Don’t say, “They are sufficient for me.”

² Don’t follow your own mind and your strength to walk in the desires of your heart.

³ Don’t say, “Who will have dominion over me?” for the Lord will surely take vengeance on you.

⁴ Don’t say, “I sinned, and what happened to me?” for the Lord is patient.

⁵ Don’t be so confident of atonement that you add sin upon sins.

⁶ Don’t say, “His compassion is great. He will be pacified for the multitude of my sins,” for mercy and wrath are with him, and his indignation will rest on sinners.

⁷ Don’t wait to turn to the Lord. Don’t put off from day to day; for suddenly the wrath of the Lord will come on you, and you will perish in the time of vengeance.

⁸ Don’t set your heart upon unrighteous gains, for you will profit nothing in the day of calamity.

⁹ Don’t winnow with every wind. Don’t walk in every path. This is what the sinner who has a double tongue does.

¹⁰ Be steadfast in your understanding. Let your speech be consistent.

¹¹ Be swift to hear and answer with patience.

¹² If you have understanding, answer your neighbor; but if not, put your hand over your mouth.

¹³ Glory and dishonor is in talk. A man’s tongue may be his downfall.

¹⁴ Don’t be called a whisperer. Don’t lie in wait with your tongue; for shame is on the thief, and an evil condemnation is on him who has a double tongue.

¹⁵ Don’t be ignorant in a great or small matter.

¹ SSet not thy heart upon unjust possessions, and say not: I have enough to live on: for it shall be of no service in the time of vengeance and darkness.

² Follow not in thy strength the desires of thy heart:

³ And say not: How mighty am I? and who shall bring me under for my deeds? for God will surely take revenge.

⁴ Say not: I have sinned, and what harm hath befallen me? for the most High is a patient rewarder.

⁵ Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin:

⁶ And say not: The mercy of the Lord is great, he will have mercy on the multitude of my sins.

⁷ For mercy and wrath quickly come from him, and his wrath looketh upon sinners.

⁸ Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day.

⁹ For his wrath shall come on a sudden, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy thee.

¹⁰ Be not anxious for goods unjustly gotten: for they shall not profit thee in the day of calamity and revenge.

¹¹ Winnow not with every wind, and go not into every way: for so is every sinner proved by a double tongue.

¹² Be steadfast in the way of the Lord, and in the truth of thy judgment, and in knowledge, and let the word of peace and justice keep with thee.

¹³ Be meek to hear the word, that thou mayst understand: and return a true answer with wisdom.

¹⁴ If thou have understanding, answer thy neighbour: but if not, let thy hand be upon thy mouth, lest thou be surprised in an unskilful word, and be confounded.

¹⁵ Honour and glory is in the word of the wise, but the tongue of the fool is his ruin.

¹⁶ Be not called a whisperer, and be not taken in thy tongue, and confounded.

¹⁷ For confusion and repentance is upon a thief, and an evil mark of disgrace upon the double tongued, but to the whisperer hatred, and enmity, and reproach.

¹⁸ Justify alike the small and the great.