ChaplainHousehold concord

Sirach — Chapter 25 — Hebrew–Greek comparison

Concord, Age, and Household Discord

Saints Translation · V2 · Hebrew–Greek working comparison

Sirach 25 · 25 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.	25:1 In three things I was adorned and stood beautiful before the Lord and human beings: harmony among brothers, friendship among neighbors, and a wife and husband living agreeably with one another.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note 25:1 The speaking I is grammatically feminine in Greek, suggesting personified wisdom; no speaker’s name is inserted.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	25:2 But my soul hated three kinds, and I was greatly offended at their life: a proud poor person, a rich liar, and an old adulterer deficient in understanding.	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.	25:3 You have not gathered in youth; how could you find anything in your old age?	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note 25:3 The gathered object is unexpressed; the following verses concern wisdom and judgment.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	25:4 How fitting is judgment for gray hair, and knowledge of counsel for elders!	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.	25:5 How fitting is wisdom for the old, and thought and counsel for the honored!	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.	25:6 Long experience is the crown of the old, and their boast is the fear of the Lord.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied.
Hebrew 25:7 · translated Happy the man who rejoices in his posterity, who lives to see the breaking of his adversaries. Hebrew witness C · C VI Verso אשרי איש שמח באחריתו / חי וראה בשבר צריו· Manuscript transcription	25:7 Nine things I considered happy in my heart, and the tenth I will speak with my tongue: a person rejoicing in children, one who lives to see his enemies’ fall;	Similar · Hebrew 25:7 — C excerpt lacks Greek numerical introduction; אחריתו may also mean his end. Inherited Greek note 25:7 The announced nine and tenth are preserved without forcing a new enumeration onto the following clauses.
Hebrew 25:8 · translated Happy one who has not stumbled with his tongue, and whose servant is beneath him. Happy the husband of a discerning wife, who does not plow like an ox with a donkey. Hebrew witness C · C VII Recto (Beentjes: C V Recto) אשרי שלא נפל בלשון ולו / עבד נקלה ממנו· אשרי / בעל אשה משכלת ולא / חורש כשור עם חמוׄר Manuscript transcription	25:8 happy is the one who lives with an understanding wife, who has not slipped with his tongue, and who has not served someone unworthy of him;	Different · Hebrew 25:8 — C master/servant relation differs Greek not serving an inferior and adds unequal-yoke image.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	25:9 happy is the one who has found prudence and the one who speaks into listening ears.	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.	25:10 How great is the one who has found wisdom! Yet he is not above the one who fears the Lord.	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.	25:11 The fear of the Lord has surpassed everything; to whom will the one who holds it fast be compared?	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note 25:11 The next printed label is 13; label 12 is absent.
Hebrew 25:13 · fragmentary Any blow, but not like […] the heart; any evil, but not like the evil of […]. Hebrew witness C · C VII Recto (Beentjes: C V Recto) כל מכה ולא כ[ — ] / לב כל רעה ולא כרע [ת — ] Manuscript transcription	25:13 Any wound, but not a wound of the heart; any evil, but not a woman’s evil;	Similar · Hebrew 25:13 — C lacunae; wife not supplied in lost ending. Classification assesses only the surviving/readable wording, not lost portions. Inherited Greek note 25:13 The force is an emphatic preference among hardships; the strongly gendered wording is retained as the author’s statement.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	25:14 any calamity, but not a calamity from those who hate; any retribution, but not the retribution of enemies.	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.	25:15 There is no head beyond a snake’s head, and no anger beyond an enemy’s anger.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note 25:15 Head follows actual κεφαλή, whose connection with a snake’s harmful power is left in the image; it is not silently changed to venom.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	25:16 I would choose to live with a lion and a dragon rather than live with an evil woman.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note 25:16 Dragon renders δράκων, which can designate a great serpent.
Hebrew 25:17 · fragmentary A woman’s evil blackens […] a man’s appearance and darkens his fa[ce] like a bear. Hebrew witness C · C VII Recto (Beentjes: C V Recto) רע אשה ישחיר [ — ] / ׄמראה איש ויקדיר פנ [י]ו / לדוב· Manuscript transcription	25:17 A woman’s evil changes her appearance and darkens her face like a bear.	Different · Hebrew 25:17 — Hebrew man/his face versus inherited Greek her appearance/face. Classification assesses only the surviving/readable wording, not lost portions.
Hebrew 25:18 · translated Her husband sits among friends and sighs against his own wish. Hebrew witness C · C VII Recto (Beentjes: C V Recto) בין רעים ישב בעלה / ובלא טעמו יתאנח· Manuscript transcription	25:18 Her husband will recline among his neighbors and involuntarily groan bitterly.	Similar · Hebrew 25:18 — Core sense agrees; independent Hebrew rendering of the selected primary witness. No claim of letter-for-letter identity.
Hebrew 25:19 · translated Little evil is like a woman’s evil; a sinner’s lot falls upon her. Hebrew witness C · C VII Recto (Beentjes: C V Recto) מעט / רעה כרעת אשה גורל / חוטא יפול עליה· Manuscript transcription	25:19 Every evil is small beside a woman’s evil; may a sinner’s lot fall upon her.	Different · Hebrew 25:19 — Hebrew מעט רעה כרעת literally little evil like, less clear than Greek all evil small beside. Inherited Greek note 25:19 The imprecation is preserved as an ancient textual statement, not directed at any present person.
Hebrew 25:20 · translated Like a hard ascent to an aged man is a talkative wife to a lowly man. Hebrew witness C · C VII Recto (Beentjes: C V Recto) כמעלה / חזק לאיש ישיש אשת / לשון לאיש מך· Manuscript transcription Additional folio transcriptions: 2	25:20 A sandy ascent under an old person’s feet—so is a talkative wife to a quiet husband.	Different · Hebrew 25:20 — Hebrew hard ascent/lowly man versus Greek sandy ascent/quiet husband.
Hebrew 25:21 · fragmentary Do not fall for a woman’s beauty, and do not hurry after what she possesses. Hebrew witness C · C VII Verso (Beentjes: C V Verso) אל תפול / אל יופי אשה ועל יש לה ] / א]ל תמהר· Manuscript transcription	25:21 Do not fall for a woman’s beauty, and do not long for a woman.	Different · Hebrew 25:21 — Hebrew her possessions contrasts Greek longing for a woman; restored initial negation in C. Classification assesses only the surviving/readable wording, not lost portions.
Hebrew 25:22 · fragmentary For because of her […] and shame: a wife who supports […] her husband. Hebrew witness C · C VII Verso (Beentjes: C V Verso) כי בעדה / [ — ]ו֯בושת אשה מכלכלת [ — ] / בעלה· Manuscript transcription	25:22 Wrath, shamelessness, and great shame result if a wife supplies her husband.	Similar · Hebrew 25:22 — C substantially damaged. Classification assesses only the surviving/readable wording, not lost portions. Inherited Greek note 25:22 The source’s ancient economic and gender expectation is retained; no modern rule about spouses’ employment is inserted.
Hebrew 25:23 · fragmentary Slack hands and [st]umbling knees: a wife who does not make her husband happy. Hebrew witness C · C VII Verso (Beentjes: C V Verso) רפיון ידים ] / וכ]שלון ברכים אשה לא / תאשר את בעלה· Manuscript transcription	25:23 An evil wife is a humbled heart, a gloomy face, and a wound of the heart; one who does not make her husband happy is slack hands and paralyzed knees.	Similar · Hebrew 25:23 — C excerpts latter part of Greek verse. Classification assesses only the surviving/readable wording, not lost portions. Inherited Greek note 25:23 Both sets of bodily images are retained.
Hebrew 25:24 · translated From a woman is the beginning of guilt, and because of her we all perish together. Hebrew witness C · C VII Verso (Beentjes: C V Verso) מאשה / תחלת עון ובגללה גוענו / יחד· Manuscript transcription	25:24 From a woman came the beginning of sin, and because of her we all die.	Similar · Hebrew 25:24 — Core sense agrees; independent Hebrew rendering of the selected primary witness. No claim of letter-for-letter identity. Inherited Greek note 25:24 Woman and the causal statement are explicit. Eve is not named in the Greek verse, and no further account of inherited guilt is added.
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission.	25:25 Do not give water an outlet, or an evil wife freedom of speech.	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.	25:26 If she does not walk according to your direction, cut her off from your flesh.	Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note 25:26 The flesh-separation image is retained in its marital setting; it is not converted into a new procedural instruction concerning physical injury.

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.