Sirach — Chapter 7
Duties toward God and Neighbor
← Sirach 6 · Sirach: all chapters · Sirach 8 →
Hebrew–Greek comparison and notes · III. Wisdom
7:1 Do not do evil things, and evil will certainly not overtake you.
7:2 Withdraw from injustice, and it will turn aside from you.
7:3 Son, do not sow in the furrows of injustice, and you will certainly not reap them sevenfold.
7:4 Do not seek leadership from the Lord or a seat of glory from a king.
7:5 Do not justify yourself before the Lord, and do not make yourself out to be wise before a king.
7:6 Do not seek to become a judge, lest you prove unable to remove injustices, lest you be afraid before someone powerful and place a stumbling block in your uprightness.
7:7 Do not sin against the population of a city, and do not cast yourself down among the crowd.
7:8 Do not bind a sin twice, for even with one you will not be innocent.
7:9 Do not say, “He will look upon the multitude of my gifts, and when I present an offering to God Most High, He will accept it.”
7:10 Do not lose heart in your prayer, and do not neglect to give alms.
7:11 Do not laugh at someone in bitterness of soul, for there is One who brings low and raises high.
7:12 Do not plow a lie against your brother, or do the same to a friend.
7:13 Do not be willing to tell any lie, for persisting in it leads to no good.
7:14 Do not chatter among a multitude of elders, and do not repeat a word in your prayer.
7:15 Do not hate laborious work or farming, which the Most High created.
7:16 Do not count yourself among the multitude of sinners; remember that wrath will not delay.
7:17 Humble your soul greatly, for the retribution of the ungodly is fire and the worm.
7:18 Do not exchange a friend for profit or a true brother for gold of Souphir.
7:19 Do not disregard a wise and good wife, for her grace is beyond gold.
7:20 Do not mistreat a household slave who works faithfully, or a hired worker who gives his soul to the task.
7:21 Let your soul love an understanding household slave; do not deprive him of freedom.
7:22 Do you have livestock? Look after them, and if they are useful to you, let them remain with you.
7:23 Do you have children? Discipline them, and bend their neck from youth.
7:24 Do you have daughters? Attend to their bodies, and do not make your face cheerful toward them.
7:25 Give a daughter in marriage, and you will have completed a great task; give her to an understanding man.
7:26 Do you have a wife after your heart? Do not put her away; and do not entrust yourself to an unloved woman.
7:27 Glorify your father with your whole heart, and do not forget your mother’s labor pains.
7:28 Remember that through them you were born; what will you repay them to match what they have given you?
7:29 Revere the Lord with your whole soul, and honor His priests.
7:30 Love your Maker with your whole strength, and do not abandon His ministers.
7:31 Fear the Lord and glorify the priest; give him his portion, as you have been commanded: firstfruits, the guilt offering, the gift of shoulders, the sacrifice of sanctification, and the firstfruits of holy things.
7:32 Stretch out your hand also to the poor person, so that your blessing may be complete.
7:33 Let the favor of a gift extend to every living person, and do not withhold kindness from the dead.
7:34 Do not hold back from those who weep, and mourn with those who mourn.
7:35 Do not hesitate to visit a sick person, for through such deeds you will be loved.
7:36 In all your words remember your last things, and you will never sin.
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.
7:3 The multiplier sevenfold is preserved.
7:6 Both reasons for caution are retained.
7:8 The binding image and the contrast between twice and one remain explicit.
7:9 The warning concerns reliance on gifts, not a statement that all offerings are rejected.
7:12 Plow retains the deliberate agricultural metaphor.
7:14 The specific warning against repetition is retained without being expanded into a general doctrine concerning every repeated prayer.
7:17 Fire and worm remain explicit; no location absent from this verse is inserted.
7:18 Souphir preserves the Greek place-name Σουφιρ; no geographic identification is asserted.
7:20 Household slave and hired worker are distinct source categories; the commitment image of giving one’s soul is retained.
7:21 Freedom is explicit, not replaced by wages or rest.
7:23 The stern neck-bending image belongs to the ancient instruction and is retained without adding a method of punishment.
7:24 Both clauses are retained as the author’s ancient household counsel; they are not recast as a general assessment of daughters’ worth.
7:26 Unloved woman represents the feminine passive μισουμένῃ; the agent of the hatred is not expressed.
7:31 All five items are retained. Shoulders follows βραχιόνων, the sacrificial portions; the list is not collapsed into a generic donation.
7:33 The verbless first clause is rendered as an exhortation; the dead remain the explicit object in the second.
7:36 Words follows λόγοις; last things retains the phrase without inserting a later enumerated list.