Sirach — Chapter 4
Care for the Needy and Fidelity to Wisdom
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Hebrew–Greek comparison and notes · III. Wisdom
4:1 Child, do not deprive the poor person of his livelihood, and do not keep needy eyes waiting.
4:2 Do not grieve a hungry soul, and do not provoke a man in his helplessness.
4:3 Do not add trouble to an embittered heart, and do not delay a gift to someone in need.
4:4 Do not reject an afflicted supplicant, and do not turn your face away from a poor person.
4:5 Do not turn your eye away from someone in need, and do not give anyone occasion to curse you.
4:6 For if he curses you in the bitterness of his soul, his Maker will listen to his petition.
4:7 Make yourself welcome to the assembly, and bow your head to a person of high rank.
4:8 Incline your ear to the poor person, and answer him peaceably with gentleness.
4:9 Rescue the one being wronged from the hand of the wrongdoer, and do not lose courage when you judge.
4:10 Be like a father to orphans and in place of a husband to their mother. Then you will be like a son of the Most High, and He will love you more than your mother does.
4:11 Wisdom has raised her sons high and takes hold of those who seek her.
4:12 The one who loves her loves life, and those who rise early to seek her will be filled with gladness.
4:13 The one who holds her fast will inherit glory; wherever he enters, the Lord blesses.
4:14 Those who serve her will minister to the Holy One, and the Lord loves those who love her.
4:15 The one who obeys her will judge nations, and the one who attends to her will dwell confidently.
4:16 If he trusts, he will possess her as an inheritance, and his descendants will hold her in possession.
4:17 For at first she will walk with him on winding paths; she will bring fear and dread upon him and torment him with her discipline until she trusts his soul, and she will test him by her ordinances.
4:18 Then she will return straight to him, gladden him, and reveal her hidden things to him.
4:19 If he goes astray, she will abandon him and hand him over into the grip of his downfall.
4:20 Watch for the right time and guard against evil, and do not be ashamed concerning your soul.
4:21 For there is shame that brings sin, and there is shame that is glory and favor.
4:22 Do not show partiality against your own soul, and do not defer to someone to your own downfall.
4:23 Do not withhold a word at a time of need,
4:24 for wisdom will be known through speech, and instruction through the tongue’s utterance.
4:25 Do not speak against the truth, and be ashamed of your lack of instruction.
4:26 Do not be ashamed to confess your sins, and do not force your way against a river’s current.
4:27 Do not lay yourself down beneath a foolish person, and do not show partiality to someone powerful.
4:28 Struggle for the truth until death, and the Lord God will fight for you.
4:29 Do not be rash with your tongue and sluggish and slack in your deeds.
4:30 Do not be like a lion in your house, indulging vain fancies among your household slaves.
4:31 Do not let your hand be stretched out to receive, but drawn back when repaying.
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.
4:1 Livelihood renders ζωή in the setting of support for the poor; the waiting eyes image is retained.
4:6 The Creator’s hearing of the neglected person’s petition is explicit.
4:10 Both family comparisons are retained. Like a son translates ὡς υἱός rather than asserting an identity without the comparison.
4:13 The unexpressed subject of enters is provisionally the person holding wisdom, not wisdom herself.
4:17 Wisdom is subject of trusts here, in contrast to the person’s trust in 4:16. The severe testing language is retained.
4:19 The source’s hands of his downfall is represented as its grip.
4:21 The contrast concerns different kinds of shame; neither half is omitted.
4:22 Show partiality translates the idiom receive a face.
4:27 The submission image is kept rather than changed into a prohibition of friendship.
4:30 The rare φαντασιοκοπῶν is rendered with the sense documented in LSJ’s directly read entry, which specifically cites this verse. The context may imply suspicious household behavior, but that narrower inference is not substituted for the verb. “Household slaves” renders οἰκέται. [LSJ-PHANTASIO]
4:31 Verified early Christian parallel: Didache 4 repeats the image of hands extended to receive but withdrawn from giving, amid instructions on generosity. The parallel was read in Riddle’s English translation; direct literary dependence and identical Greek wording are not claimed. [DIDACHE4]