Sirach — Chapter 17 — Hebrew–Greek comparison
Creation, Covenant, and Return to God
| 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. | The Lord created a human being from earth and returned him to 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. | He gave them numbered days and an appointed time, and He gave them authority over the things upon it. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note17:2 The source shifts from singular human being to plural them; the earth is the referent of it. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | He clothed them with strength like His own and made them according to His image. | 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. | He placed the fear of the human being upon all flesh and granted dominion over beasts and winged creatures. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note17:4 The fear of him is provisionally understood as fear of humanity, in the context of dominion. The source pronoun itself does not repeat human being. The next printed label is 6; label 5 is absent. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | He gave them deliberation, a tongue and eyes, ears and a heart for understanding. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note17:6 All six gifts are retained. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | He filled them with discerning knowledge and showed them good things and evil things. | 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. | He set His eye upon their hearts to show them the greatness of His works, | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note17:8 The Greek reads His eye, not fear. The next printed label is 10; label 9 is absent. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | and they will praise the holy name, so that they may recount the greatness of His works. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note17:10 Holy name represents literally name of sanctification. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | He added knowledge to them and gave them the law of life as an inheritance. | 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. | He established an everlasting covenant with them and showed them His judgments. | 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. | Their eyes saw the greatness of glory, and their ear heard the glory of His voice. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note17:13 The repeated glory and the singular ear are retained. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | He said to them, “Beware of every injustice,” and commanded each of them concerning the neighbor. | 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. | Their ways are continually before Him; they will not be hidden from His eyes. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note17:15 The next printed label is 17; label 16 is absent. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | He appointed a ruler for each nation, but Israel is the Lord’s portion. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note17:17 The ruler is not explicitly called an angel in this verse. The next printed label is 19; label 18 is absent. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | All their works are like the sun before Him, and His eyes are continually upon their ways. | 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. | Their injustices were not hidden from Him, and all their sins are before the Lord. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note17:20 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. | A man’s almsgiving is like a seal with Him, and He will guard human kindness like the pupil of an eye. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note17:22 With Him and He provisionally refer to the Lord. The seal and pupil images are both retained. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | After these things He will rise and repay them; He will return their recompense upon their head. | 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. | Yet He gave a way back to those who repent and encouraged those whose endurance was failing. | 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. | Return to the Lord and leave sins behind; petition Him face to face and lessen your stumbling. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note17:25 Lessen renders σμίκρυνον, rather than silently replacing it with an absolute verb of removal. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | Come back to the Most High, turn away from injustice, and hate abomination intensely. | 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. | Who in Hades will praise the Most High in place of the living who give acknowledgment? | 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. | From the dead, as from one who does not exist, thanksgiving perishes; the living and healthy will praise the Lord. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note17:28 The comparison as from one who does not exist is explicit, without being converted into a complete doctrine of the dead’s condition. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | How great is the Lord’s mercy and His atonement for those who return to 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. | For human beings cannot have everything, because a son of man is not immortal. | Not classified. No paired Hebrew reading is supplied. Inherited Greek note17:30 Son of man is the ordinary human designation here, not a supplied christological title. |
No Hebrew text is available in the selected manuscript coverage for this unit. This is a source gap, not a classified omission. | What is brighter than the sun? Yet even it fails; and flesh and blood will conceive 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. | He Himself surveys the power of the height of heaven, but all human beings are earth and ashes. | 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.