Sirach — Chapter 21
Sin, Wisdom, and Foolish Speech
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Hebrew–Greek comparison and notes · III. Wisdom
21:1 Child, have you sinned? Do not add to it any more, and pray concerning your earlier sins.
21:2 Flee from sin as from the presence of a snake, for if you approach it, it will bite you. Its teeth are lions’ teeth, destroying human lives.
21:3 All lawlessness is like a two-edged sword; there is no healing for its wound.
21:4 Intimidation and insolence will lay wealth waste; so the house of a proud person will be laid waste.
21:5 A poor person’s petition goes from his mouth to His ears, and His judgment comes swiftly.
21:6 The one who hates rebuke is in a sinner’s tracks, but the one who fears the Lord will turn back in heart.
21:7 One who is powerful with the tongue is known from far away, but an understanding person knows when he slips.
21:8 The one who builds his house with others’ money is like someone gathering its stones for a storm.
21:9 An assembly of the lawless is gathered tow, and their end is a flame of fire.
21:10 The sinners’ road is smoothed with stones, but at its end is the pit of Hades.
21:11 The one who keeps the law masters his thoughts, and wisdom is the fulfillment of the fear of the Lord.
21:12 The one who is not shrewd will not be instructed, yet there is a shrewdness that multiplies bitterness.
21:13 A wise person’s knowledge will increase like a flood, and his counsel is like a spring of life.
21:14 A fool’s inward parts are like a broken vessel; he will retain no knowledge.
21:15 If a knowledgeable person hears a wise word, he will praise it and add to it. A self-indulgent person hears it, and it displeases him; he casts it behind his back.
21:16 A fool’s explanation is like a burden on a journey, but grace will be found on an understanding person’s lip.
21:17 The mouth of a prudent person will be sought in the assembly, and they will consider his words in their heart.
21:18 Wisdom is like a ruined house to a fool, and an uncomprehending person’s knowledge is unexamined words.
21:19 Instruction is fetters on the feet of the senseless, and like handcuffs on his right hand.
21:20 A fool raises his voice in laughter, but a shrewd man will barely smile quietly.
21:21 Instruction is like a golden ornament to the prudent, and like a bracelet on his right arm.
21:22 A fool’s foot is quick to enter a house, but an experienced person will feel shame before it.
21:23 A foolish person peers into a house from its door, but an instructed man will stand outside.
21:24 It is a person’s lack of instruction to listen at a door, but the prudent will feel weighed down by the dishonor.
21:25 Strangers’ lips will talk about these things, but the words of the prudent will be weighed in a balance.
21:26 Fools have their heart in their mouth, but the heart of the wise is their mouth.
21:27 When an ungodly person curses Satan, he curses his own soul.
21:28 The whisperer stains his own soul and will be hated where he dwells.
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.
21:5 His ears and His judgment are provisionally understood as the Lord’s; the source does not name the subject explicitly in this verse.
21:7 The final he can refer to the powerful speaker; that referent remains unexpressed beyond the pronoun.
21:8 Storm renders χειμών; the house’s exposure to ruin is retained without inventing a precise weather event.
21:9 Tow is the combustible loose fiber in the image.
21:12 Both the positive aptitude and its harmful misuse are retained.
21:18 Unexamined preserves ἀδιεξέταστοι; unintelligible is another possible contextual force, not silently adopted.
21:22 The final presence or face expression is terse; the rendering preserves restraint before entering without adding an invitation procedure.
21:25 Strangers renders actual ἀλλοτρίων; it is not silently replaced by fools or babblers.
21:26 The second clause has καρδία, “heart,” without an expressed preposition: “the heart of the wise is their mouth.” This wording was visually confirmed in Swete, p. 686. Whether a parallel locative expression is implied remains open; the draft does not silently add one. [SWETE-SIR]
21:27 Satan transliterates σατανᾶν; an adversary sense remains possible in this context. The verse is not expanded into a theory of demonic identity.