MinisterPrudent generosity

Sirach — Chapter 29 — Hebrew–Greek comparison

Loans, Surety, and a Home of One’s Own

Saints Translation · V2 · Hebrew–Greek working comparison

Sirach 29 · 28 source units
Hebrew–English · Literal-Smooth	Greek–English · Literal-Smooth	Classification & Notes
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:1 The one who shows mercy will lend to his neighbor, and the one who strengthens his hand keeps commandments.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note 29:1 His hand is read as the neighbor’s, in the context of lending support.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:2 Lend to your neighbor at his time of need, and in turn repay your neighbor at the appointed time.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:3 Confirm your word and keep faith with him, and at every time you will find what you need.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:4 Many regarded a loan as a windfall and brought trouble upon those who helped them.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:5 Until he receives it, he will kiss the lender’s hands and lower his voice over his neighbor’s money; when repayment is due, he will drag out the time, return words of indifference, and blame the season.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note 29:5 The lender supplies the referent of the first his; all changes in the borrower’s behavior are retained.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:6 If the lender succeeds, he will scarcely recover half and regard it as a windfall. If not, the borrower has deprived him of his money and made him an enemy for nothing. He will repay him with curses and insults, and repay dishonor in place of honor.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note 29:6 Lender and borrower clarify the changing subjects of the Greek pronouns; the half and the hostile repayment are explicit.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:7 Many have turned away, not from wickedness, but because they feared being deprived for nothing.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:8 Nevertheless, be patient with the lowly person and do not keep him waiting for alms.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:9 For the commandment’s sake, support the poor person; in his need do not turn him away empty.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:10 Lose silver for a brother and a friend, and do not let it corrode under a stone to destruction.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note 29:10 The imperative lose is retained in the context of generous use of wealth.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:11 Place your treasure according to the Most High’s commandments, and it will benefit you more than gold.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:12 Store up almsgiving in your chambers, and it will rescue you from every affliction.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note 29:12 Verified reception: Cyprian, On Works and Alms 5, cites the almsgiving saying in a form about storing alms in the poor person’s heart and their intercession against evil. His wording differs from this publisher’s “chambers” and “affliction.” That difference is reported from Wallis’s translation, without reconstructing Cyprian’s Latin. [CYP-ALMS-SIR]
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:13 More than a strong shield and more than a weighty spear, it will fight for you against an enemy.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note 29:13 Almsgiving continues as the protective subject.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:14 A good man will stand surety for his neighbor, but someone who has lost shame will abandon him.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:15 Do not forget a guarantor’s favors, for he has given his life on your behalf.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note 29:15 The risk of life is explicit; guarantor represents the person standing surety.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:16 A sinner will overthrow a guarantor’s good circumstances, and someone ungrateful in thought will abandon his rescuer.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:17 Surety has destroyed many who were prospering and shaken them like a wave of the sea.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:18 It has driven powerful men from home, and they wandered among foreign nations.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:19 A sinner who falls into surety and pursues profitable undertakings will fall into lawsuits.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note 29:19 Profitable undertakings provisionally renders ἐργολαβίας, which can involve jobbing or questionable dealings; no specific fraud is invented.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:20 Support your neighbor according to your ability, and take care of yourself so that you do not fall.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:21 The first necessities of life are water, bread, clothing, and a house that covers nakedness.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:22 Better a poor person’s life beneath a shelter of beams than splendid dishes in other people’s homes.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:23 Be content with little or much, and you will certainly not hear the reproach of living as a guest.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:24 A life from house to house is grievous; where you live as a guest, you will not open your mouth.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:25 You will entertain and provide drink without thanks, and besides these things you will hear bitter words:	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:26 “Come along, guest, arrange the table, and if you have anything in your hand, feed me.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:27 Go out, guest, before a more honored person; my brother has come as my guest, and I need the house.”	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note 29:27 A more honored person supplies the sense of before glory in the host’s dismissal.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	29:28 These things are burdensome to a person with prudence: rebuke about lodging and a creditor’s reproach.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied.

Source and numbering

Hebrew English is newly translated from the manuscript-specific transcriptions in The Book of Ben Sira portal. Each translated unit identifies its selected witness and folio. This is a selected-witness working edition, not an exhaustive collation of every manuscript or a reconstruction of lost Hebrew. Brackets and fragmentary status identify uncertainty; no Greek text has been back-translated to fill Hebrew gaps.

The Greek-source English and its notes are inherited from the existing Sirach edition. The comparison categories are provisional editorial assessments against that English; this update is not a fresh verification of every Greek reading or its apparatus.

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.