Sirach — Chapter 17
Creation, Covenant, and Return to God
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Hebrew–Greek comparison and notes · III. Wisdom
17:1 The Lord created a human being from earth and returned him to it again.
17:2 He gave them numbered days and an appointed time, and He gave them authority over the things upon it.
17:3 He clothed them with strength like His own and made them according to His image.
17:4 He placed the fear of the human being upon all flesh and granted dominion over beasts and winged creatures.
17:6 He gave them deliberation, a tongue and eyes, ears and a heart for understanding.
17:7 He filled them with discerning knowledge and showed them good things and evil things.
17:8 He set His eye upon their hearts to show them the greatness of His works,
17:10 and they will praise the holy name, so that they may recount the greatness of His works.
17:11 He added knowledge to them and gave them the law of life as an inheritance.
17:12 He established an everlasting covenant with them and showed them His judgments.
17:13 Their eyes saw the greatness of glory, and their ear heard the glory of His voice.
17:14 He said to them, “Beware of every injustice,” and commanded each of them concerning the neighbor.
17:15 Their ways are continually before Him; they will not be hidden from His eyes.
17:17 He appointed a ruler for each nation, but Israel is the Lord’s portion.
17:19 All their works are like the sun before Him, and His eyes are continually upon their ways.
17:20 Their injustices were not hidden from Him, and all their sins are before the Lord.
17:22 A man’s almsgiving is like a seal with Him, and He will guard human kindness like the pupil of an eye.
17:23 After these things He will rise and repay them; He will return their recompense upon their head.
17:24 Yet He gave a way back to those who repent and encouraged those whose endurance was failing.
17:25 Return to the Lord and leave sins behind; petition Him face to face and lessen your stumbling.
17:26 Come back to the Most High, turn away from injustice, and hate abomination intensely.
17:27 Who in Hades will praise the Most High in place of the living who give acknowledgment?
17:28 From the dead, as from one who does not exist, thanksgiving perishes; the living and healthy will praise the Lord.
17:29 How great is the Lord’s mercy and His atonement for those who return to Him!
17:30 For human beings cannot have everything, because a son of man is not immortal.
17:31 What is brighter than the sun? Yet even it fails; and flesh and blood will conceive evil.
17:32 He Himself surveys the power of the height of heaven, but all human beings are earth and ashes.
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.
17:2 The source shifts from singular human being to plural them; the earth is the referent of it.
17:4 The fear of him is provisionally understood as fear of humanity, in the context of dominion. The source pronoun itself does not repeat human being. The next printed label is 6; label 5 is absent.
17:6 All six gifts are retained.
17:8 The Greek reads His eye, not fear. The next printed label is 10; label 9 is absent.
17:10 Holy name represents literally name of sanctification.
17:13 The repeated glory and the singular ear are retained.
17:15 The next printed label is 17; label 16 is absent.
17:17 The ruler is not explicitly called an angel in this verse. The next printed label is 19; label 18 is absent.
17:20 The next printed label is 22; label 21 is absent.
17:22 With Him and He provisionally refer to the Lord. The seal and pupil images are both retained.
17:25 Lessen renders σμίκρυνον, rather than silently replacing it with an absolute verb of removal.
17:28 The comparison as from one who does not exist is explicit, without being converted into a complete doctrine of the dead’s condition.
17:30 Son of man is the ordinary human designation here, not a supplied christological title.