Sirach — Chapter 41
Death, a good name, and proper shame
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Hebrew–Greek comparison and notes · III. Wisdom
41:1 O death, how bitter is your remembrance to a person at peace among his possessions, to a man free from distraction and prospering in everything, who still has strength to take food!
41:2 O death, how good is your sentence to a person in need and declining in strength, extremely old and distracted about everything, resistant and having lost endurance!
41:3 Do not fear death’s sentence; remember those before you and those who come afterward.
41:4 This is the sentence from the Lord upon all flesh. Why do you refuse what pleases the Most High? Whether ten or a hundred or a thousand years, in Hades there is no reproach concerning one’s life.
41:5 The children of sinners become loathsome children, those who associate with the dwellings of the ungodly.
41:6 The inheritance of sinners’ children will perish, and reproach will remain continually with their offspring.
41:7 Children will blame an ungodly father, because they will be reproached on his account.
41:8 Woe to you, ungodly men, who have abandoned the law of God Most High!
41:9 If you are born, you will be born for a curse; if you die, you will be allotted to a curse.
41:10 Everything that comes from earth will depart into earth; so the ungodly go from a curse to destruction.
41:11 People’s mourning concerns their bodies, but the name of sinners, being no good, will be blotted out.
41:12 Take care of your name, for it will remain with you longer than a thousand great treasures of gold.
41:13 A good life has a numbered span of days, but a good name will remain forever.
41:14 Children, preserve instruction in peace. But hidden wisdom and an unseen treasure—what benefit is there in either?
41:15 A person who hides his foolishness is better than a person who hides his wisdom.
41:16 Therefore, be ashamed in accordance with my word. For it is not good to preserve every kind of shame, and not everything finds approval with everyone in good faith.
41:17 Be ashamed before father and mother concerning sexual immorality, and before a leader and ruler concerning a lie;
41:18 before a judge and magistrate concerning an offense, and before an assembly and people concerning lawlessness;
41:19 before a partner and friend concerning injustice, and before the place where you reside concerning theft;
41:20 before the truth of God and His covenant, and of planting your elbow upon bread;
41:21 of contempt in receiving and giving, and of silence toward those who greet you;
41:22 of looking at a courtesan, and of turning your face away from a relative;
41:23 of taking away a portion and a gift, and of scrutinizing a married woman;
41:24 of meddling with his maidservant—and do not stand over her bed;
41:25 before friends concerning words of reproach—and after giving, do not reproach;
41:26 of repeating a report you have heard, and of concealing secret words.
41:27 Then you will be truly modest and find favor before every person.
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.
41:1 The address personifies death; taking food marks continuing bodily enjoyment and strength.
41:2 “Resistant” renders ἀπειθοῦντι; the object of his resistance is not expressed.
41:4 The final phrase is literally “no reproach of life”; the particular length of life is supplied by the preceding alternatives, not by an added doctrine of Hades.
41:11 The negative οὐκ ἀγαθόν belongs to the description of the sinners’ name; it is not omitted.
41:16 The distinction introduces occasions for shame and, at 42:1, occasions when shame is inappropriate. The final qualification ἐν πίστει is retained without claiming a technical theological meaning.
41:20 The list shifts from people before whom one feels shame to conduct of which one should be ashamed. The physical table gesture is retained.
41:21 Σκορακισμός denotes contemptuous dismissal; “in receiving and giving” preserves the paired transaction language.
41:24 “His” has no newly named male antecedent in the immediate clause; the Greek’s pronoun is retained rather than replaced with “your.”
41:26 Source difference: the publisher reads καλύψεως, “concealing.” Swete, p. 731, under his reference 42:1, prints ἀποκαλύψεων, giving “and of revealing secret words.” That alternate phrase was directly read in the printed Greek. This draft retains the declared publisher’s reading and numbering; determining whether its difference is editorial or a digital error requires the corresponding printed Rahlfs–Hanhart page. [SWETE-SIR]