Sirach — Chapter 19 — Hebrew–Greek comparison
Discretion in Speech and Genuine Wisdom
| Hebrew–English · Literal-Smooth | Greek–English · Literal-Smooth | Classification & Notes |
|---|---|---|
Hebrew 19:1 · translated One who does this will not grow rich, and one who despises small things will be shaken. Hebrew witness C · C V Recto (Beentjes: C IV Recto)פועל זאת / לא י֯עשיר ובוזה מעוטים / יתערער׃ | A drunken worker will not become rich; the one who despises small things will fall little by little. | Similar · Hebrew 19:1 — Hebrew this refers back to prior maxim rather than Greek drunken worker. |
Hebrew 19:2 · translated Wine and women make the heart reckless. Hebrew witness C · C V Recto (Beentjes: C IV Recto)יין ונשים / יפׄ חׄ י֯זו לב | Wine and women will lead understanding men astray, and the one who clings to prostitutes will become more reckless. | Different · Hebrew 19:2 — C excerpt omits Greek additional prostitution clause; omission in anthology is not evidence of absence from original Hebrew. |
Hebrew 19:3 · fragmentary A fierce soul [de]stroys its owner. Hebrew witness C · C V Recto (Beentjes: C IV Recto)ונפש עזה / [ת]שחית בעליה· | Rot and worms will inherit him, and a reckless soul will be taken away. | Different · Hebrew 19:3 — C excerpt has no Greek rot/worms clause. Classification assesses only the surviving/readable wording, not lost portions. Inherited Greek note19:3 Here rot and worms are explicitly the inheriting subject, unlike 10:11. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | The one who trusts quickly is lighthearted, and the one who sins will wrong his own soul. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note19:4 Lighthearted represents the unfavorable sense of κοῦφος καρδίᾳ, a thoughtless or unstable heart. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | The one who rejoices in heart will be condemned, | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note19:5 This is the actual short wording, without an expressed object such as wickedness. Its relation to the next clause remains difficult; no unprinted object is supplied. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | but the one who hates chatter diminishes evil. | 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. | Never repeat a word, and nothing will be diminished for you. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note19:7 The injunction occurs in a context of circulating reports, rather than necessarily every form of verbal repetition. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | Do not tell it to friend or enemy, and unless silence is a sin for you, do not reveal it. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note19:8 Silence is supplied to express the conditional force of unless there is sin for you; the source itself does not name a specific legal duty. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | For someone has heard you and kept watch on you, and in time he will hate you. | 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. | Have you heard a word? Let it die with you. Take courage; it will certainly not burst you. | 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. | A fool will suffer labor pains over a word, like a woman giving birth over her baby. | 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. | An arrow fixed in the flesh of a thigh—so is a word in a fool’s belly. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note19:12 The painful bodily comparison is retained. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | Question a friend; perhaps he did not do it, and if he did something, so that he may not repeat it. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note19:13 Question represents corrective examination in ἔλεγξον, leaving room for the friend’s innocence. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | Question your neighbor; perhaps he did not say it, and if he has said it, so that he may not say it again. | 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. | Question a friend, for slander often occurs; do not trust every report. | 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. | There is someone who slips without intending it in his soul; who has not sinned with his tongue? | 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. | Question your neighbor before threatening him, and give place to the law of the Most High. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note19:17 The next printed label is 20; labels 18–19 are absent. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | All wisdom is fear of the Lord, and in all wisdom there is doing the law. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note19:20 The next printed label is 22; label 21 is absent. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | Knowledge of wickedness is not wisdom, and where sinners take counsel there is no prudence. | 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. | There is shrewdness that is an abomination, and there is a foolish person deficient in wisdom. | 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. | Better someone lacking understanding but full of fear than someone abounding in prudence who transgresses the law. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note19:24 Fear is understood positively from fear of the Lord in context; that full title is not repeated in the Greek here. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | There is precise shrewdness that is unjust, and there is someone who twists matters in order to bring a judgment to light. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note19:25 Matters supplies the object of twists. Χάριν τοῦ is taken as the purpose construction in order to, not as a separate object meaning favor. The exact judicial maneuver remains unspecified. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | There is someone who acts wickedly while bowed down in gloom, with his inward parts full of deceit. | 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. | Hiding his face and pretending to be deaf, where he has not been recognized he will get ahead of you. | 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. | If lack of strength prevents him from sinning, he will do evil when he finds an opportunity. | 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. | A man will be recognized from his appearance, and an understanding person from the look of his face. | 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. | A man’s clothing, the grin of his teeth, and a person’s steps will declare what he is like. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note19:30 All three external signs are retained; the verse’s proverbial observation is not recast as a diagnostic rule. |
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.