Sirach — Chapter 42
Discernment and the works of the Lord
← Sirach 41 · Sirach: all chapters · Sirach 43 →
Hebrew–Greek comparison and notes · III. Wisdom
42:1 Do not be ashamed of these things, and do not show partiality so as to sin:
42:2 of the law of the Most High and His covenant, and of a judgment that acquits the ungodly;
42:3 of an accounting with a partner and fellow travelers, and of giving an inheritance to companions;
42:4 of accuracy in scales and weights, and of acquiring much or little;
42:5 of profit from merchants’ sales, of much discipline for children, and of making an evil household slave’s side bleed.
42:6 With an evil woman, a seal is good; where there are many hands, lock things up.
42:7 Whatever you hand over, do so by number and weight; every giving and receiving should be in writing.
42:8 Do not be ashamed of disciplining the senseless and foolish, or an extremely old man who contends with young people. Then you will be truly instructed and approved before everyone living.
42:9 A daughter is a secret cause of sleeplessness to her father, and anxiety about her drives sleep away: in her youth, lest she pass her prime; when married, lest she be hated;
42:10 in her virginity, lest she be defiled and become pregnant in her father’s home; while with a husband, lest she transgress; and when married, lest she be barren.
42:11 Keep a firm watch over a headstrong daughter, lest she make you a delight to enemies, a subject of talk in the city, and an outcast of the people, and put you to shame among a great multitude.
42:12 Do not gaze at any person’s beauty, and do not sit among women.
42:13 For from clothes comes a moth, and from a woman comes a woman’s wickedness.
42:14 A man’s wickedness is better than a woman who does good—and a woman who brings shame leads to reproach.
42:15 I will now remember the Lord’s works and recount what I have seen. By the Lord’s words are His works.
42:16 The shining sun has looked upon everything, and His work is full of the Lord’s glory.
42:17 He has not enabled the Lord’s holy ones to recount all His wonders, which the Lord Almighty established so that everything might stand firm in His glory.
42:18 He has traced out the abyss and the heart and considered their intricate workings. For the Most High knows all knowledge and has looked upon the sign of the age,
42:19 announcing what has passed and what will be, and uncovering the traces of hidden things.
42:20 No thought has escaped Him; not even one word has been hidden from Him.
42:21 He has set in order the great things of His wisdom, as He exists before the age and into the age. Nothing has been added or diminished, and He has had no need of any counselor.
42:22 How desirable all His works are! They are there to behold like a spark.
42:23 All these live and remain forever for every need, and all obey.
42:24 All things are paired, one opposite another, and He has made nothing deficient.
42:25 One has confirmed the good things of another. Who will be filled with beholding His glory?
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.
42:2 The expression δικαιῶσαι τὸν ἀσεβῆ, “to justify/acquit the ungodly,” was visually confirmed in Swete, p. 731. It can concern giving an otherwise ungodly person a just decision; the verse need not command a knowingly unjust acquittal. “Godly” is not substituted for the printed adjective. [SWETE-SIR]
42:3 Λόγος can mean an account or a statement. The surrounding financial and equitable dealings support “accounting.”
42:5 The severe disciplinary language is the ancient author’s; the physical injury is not softened or expanded into practical instructions.
42:6 The seal and lock concern safeguarding property in context; no unexpressed object of the seal is specified.
42:8 “Do not be ashamed” resumes the governing expression in verse one. Κρινομένου may mean contending or being judged; the relationship with the young is left as a dispute.
42:14 The comparison is harsh and the final clause compressed. Both are retained as the author’s words; “a woman who does good” directly renders ἀγαθοποιὸς γυνή without reversing its sense.
42:16 The final “His” is understood of the Lord; the Greek could be read with the sun as the immediate referent. The ambiguity is not evidence of a textual variant.
42:17 “Holy ones” is not expanded into an identification with either angels or human saints; the sentence exceeds their ability to recount the wonders.
42:18 Πανουργεύματα can denote shrewd or intricate operations; here the abyss and heart are its antecedents. “The sign of the age” retains the source’s singular expression.
42:21 The sentence’s shifts between God and His ordered works remain compressed in Greek. “Nothing” supplies the subject of the two impersonal passives; no change in God’s nature is inferred from those passives.
42:22 The spark comparison is terse; the source does not expressly say whether it concerns brightness or the small glimpse available to the observer.