Sirach — Chapter 11
Reversals of Fortune
← Sirach 10 · Sirach: all chapters · Sirach 12 →
Hebrew–Greek comparison and notes · III. Wisdom
11:1 The wisdom of a humble person will raise his head and seat him among dignitaries.
11:2 Do not praise a man for his beauty or loathe a person for his appearance.
11:3 The bee is small among winged creatures, but her product is foremost among sweet things.
11:4 Do not boast in the clothing you wear or exalt yourself on a day of glory. For the Lord’s works are wonderful, and His works are hidden from human beings.
11:5 Many rulers have sat upon the ground, while someone unsuspected wore a diadem.
11:6 Many powerful people have been greatly dishonored, and the renowned were handed into others’ hands.
11:7 Do not find fault before investigating; understand first, and then rebuke.
11:8 Do not answer before hearing, and do not interrupt in the middle of someone’s words.
11:9 Do not quarrel about a matter that is no concern of yours, and do not sit together in the judgment of sinners.
11:10 Child, do not let your activities concern too many things. If you multiply them, you will not escape blame; even if you pursue, you will certainly not catch up, and even by running away you will not escape.
11:11 There is someone who toils, labors, and hurries, yet is all the more in want.
11:12 There is someone slow who needs support, lacking strength and abounding in poverty. Yet the Lord’s eyes looked upon him for good, and He raised him from his low estate
11:13 and lifted his head, and many marveled at him.
11:14 Good things and bad, life and death, poverty and wealth are from the Lord.
11:17 The Lord’s gift remains with the godly, and His good pleasure will prosper forever.
11:18 There is someone who grows rich through his attention and frugality, and this is his allotted reward:
11:19 when he says, “I have found rest, and now I will eat from my good things,” he does not know how much time will pass before he leaves them to others and dies.
11:20 Stand firm in your covenant, occupy yourself with it, and grow old in your work.
11:21 Do not marvel at a sinner’s works, but trust the Lord and remain at your labor. For it is easy in the Lord’s eyes to make a poor person rich quickly and suddenly.
11:22 The Lord’s blessing is in the godly person’s reward, and in a swift moment He makes His blessing flourish.
11:23 Do not say, “What need do I have, and what good things will be mine from now on?”
11:24 Do not say, “I have enough; what harm can come to me from now on?”
11:25 On a day of good things, bad things are forgotten; on a day of bad things, good things will not be remembered.
11:26 For it is easy before the Lord, on the day of death, to repay a person according to his ways.
11:27 An hour’s suffering makes luxury forgotten, and at a person’s end his works are revealed.
11:28 Call no one happy before his death, and a man will be known in his children.
11:29 Do not bring every person into your house, for the deceitful person has many ambushes.
11:30 Like a decoy partridge in a basket is the heart of a proud person; like a spy, he watches for a fall.
11:31 For he lies in wait, turning good things into bad, and will attach blame to what is choice.
11:32 From a spark of fire a bed of coals grows, and a sinful person lies in ambush for blood.
11:33 Beware of an evildoer, for he devises evil, lest he give you lasting blame.
11:34 Settle a stranger in your house, and he will throw you into disorder with troubles and estrange you from your own people.
Source and editorial notes
Working translation preserved from the recovered manuscript of 8 September 2026. Declared source: Septuaginta, Rahlfs–Hanhart, 2006, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, publisher’s Greek main text. Independent linguistic and critical-apparatus review remains outstanding. Source-access and reception claims in the inherited notes have not been freshly revalidated. Chapter and section headings are editorial.
The translator’s prologue is separate from the 51 chapters. Its eight source units map to publisher labels 1, 1a–1g; main-text 1:1 maps to 1h. Source 5:15 includes material often numbered 6:1, so chapter 6 begins at 6:2. Source label gaps are preserved; no text is invented.
11:3 Winged creatures avoids reducing πετεινά to birds when the bee is explicitly included.
11:5 The royal diadem is retained as an ancient object.
11:10 The pursue/catch and flee/escape clauses are both retained; the objects are not supplied from a modern paraphrase.
11:12 The conspicuous abounding in poverty paradox is preserved.
11:14 All three pairs are retained. The next displayed label is 17; labels 15–16 are absent.
11:18 Frugality renders σφιγγία, tight holding or stinginess; the evaluation unfolds in the next verse.
11:19 Rest, enjoyment, uncertain time, transfer to others, and death are all retained.
11:20 Covenant renders διαθήκη; the precise relationship to a calling or commitment remains interpretive.
11:22 The final subject is provisionally the Lord; the Greek does not repeat a noun subject.
11:23 The questions are retained without converting the first into the different question What use am I?
11:28 Children renders actual τέκνα; no conjectured end or death is substituted in the second clause.
11:30 Decoy represents the hunting function of θηρευτής; the basket and spying comparison are explicit.
11:34 This preserves the warning’s ancient hospitality setting without substituting a modern immigration claim.