Sirach — Chapter 12
Giving Wisely and Guarding against Enmity
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Hebrew–Greek comparison and notes · III. Wisdom
12:1 If you do good, know to whom you do it, and there will be gratitude for your good deeds.
12:2 Do good to a godly person, and you will find repayment; if not from him, then from the Most High.
12:3 There will be no good things for the one who persists in evil or the one who gives no alms.
12:4 Give to the godly person, and do not support the sinner.
12:5 Do good to the humble person, and do not give to the ungodly. Hold back his loaves and do not give them to him, so that he does not use them to overpower you. For you will receive double evils for all the good things you do to him.
12:6 For the Most High Himself has hated sinners and will repay the ungodly with retribution.
12:7 Give to the good person, and do not support the sinner.
12:8 A friend will not be vindicated in prosperity, and an enemy will not remain hidden in adversity.
12:9 When a man prospers, his enemies are in grief; when he suffers adversity, even his friend will separate himself.
12:10 Never trust your enemy, for as copper corrodes, so does his wickedness.
12:11 Even if he humbles himself and walks bowed down, keep your soul alert and guard against him. You will be toward him like someone who has wiped a mirror, and you will know that it has not completely corroded.
12:12 Do not station him beside yourself, lest he overthrow you and stand in your place. Do not seat him at your right hand, lest he seek your seat; then at the last you will recognize my words and be pierced by my sayings.
12:13 Who will pity a snake-charmer bitten by a serpent, or all those who approach wild beasts?
12:14 So it is with the one who approaches a sinful man and becomes entangled in his sins.
12:15 He will stay with you for an hour, but if you turn aside, he will certainly not hold firm.
12:16 An enemy will make his lips sweet, but in his heart he will plan to throw you into a pit. An enemy will weep with his eyes, but if he finds the occasion, he will not be satisfied with blood.
12:17 If evil things meet you, you will find him there before you; as though helping, he will undermine your heel.
12:18 He will shake his head and clap his hands, whisper many things, and change his expression.
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.
12:4 The restriction is explicit in this wisdom text; it is not harmonized with later commands about generosity to enemies.
12:5 The stated rationale and the double repayment are retained; the source’s exclusion is not softened into a different instruction.
12:6 Hated renders ἐμίσησεν directly; its object is sinners, not an unprinted substitution of sin alone.
12:8 “Vindicated” retains ἐκδικηθήσεται, confirmed in Swete, p. 667. His printed apparatus also reports a reading meaning “will not be known”; this can explain a different translation without being silently substituted into the declared publisher text. The actual manuscript images were not collated. [SWETE-SIR]
12:10 Copper renders χαλκός; the corrosion image is not replaced by rusting iron.
12:11 The final negative clause follows οὐκ εἰς τέλος κατίωσεν. Swete, p. 668, confirms the same wording. Its relationship to the wiped mirror and hidden wickedness remains difficult; the note does not claim that the rust is wholly gone. [SWETE-SIR]
12:12 All seating, displacement, and final recognition clauses are retained.
12:16 The outward tears and inward murderous intent are both explicit.
12:17 The pretense of help and the heel image are retained.
12:18 All four gestures or actions are preserved.