Ecclesiasticus / Sirach - Chapter 20

¹ There is the rebuke that is untimely, and there is the person who keeps quiet, and he is the shrewd one.

² But how much better to rebuke than to fume!

³ The person who acknowledges a fault wards off punishment.

⁴ Like a eunuch trying to take a girl's virginity is someone who tries to impose justice by force.

⁵ There is the person who keeps quiet and is considered wise, another incurs hatred for talking too much.

⁶ There is the person who keeps quiet, not knowing how to answer, another keeps quiet, knowing when to speak.

⁷ The wise will keep quiet till the right moment, but a garrulous fool will always misjudge it.

⁸ Someone who talks too much will earn dislike, and someone who usurps authority will earn hatred.

⁹ There is the person who finds misfortune a boon, and the piece of luck that turns to loss.

¹⁰ There is the gift that affords you no profit, and the gift that repays you double.

¹¹ There is the honour that leads to humiliation, and there are people in a low state who raise their heads.

¹² There is the person who buys much for little, yet pays for it seven times over.

¹³ The wise wins love with words, while fools may shower favours in vain.

¹⁴ The gift of the stupid will bring you no advantage, his eyes look for seven times as much in return.

¹⁵ He gives little and reviles much, he opens his mouth like the town crier, he lends today and demands payment tomorrow; he is a detestable fellow.

¹⁶ The fool will say, 'I have no friends, I get no gratitude for my good deeds;

¹⁷ those who eat my bread have malicious tongues.' How often he will be laughed at, and by how many!

¹⁸ Better a slip on the pavement than a slip of the tongue; this is how ruin takes the wicked by surprise.

¹⁹ A coarse-grained person is like an indiscreet story endlessly retold by the ignorant.

²⁰ A maxim is rejected when coming from a fool, since the fool does not utter it on the apt occasion.

²¹ There is a person who is prevented from sinning by poverty; no qualms of conscience disturb that person's rest.

²² There is a person who courts destruction out of false shame, courts destruction for the sake of a fool's opinion.

²³ There is a person who out of false shame makes promises to a friend, and so makes an enemy for nothing.

²⁴ Lying is an ugly blot on anyone, and ever on the lips of the undisciplined.

²⁵ A thief is preferable to an inveterate liar, but both are heading for ruin.

²⁶ Lying is an abominable habit, the liar's disgrace lasts for ever.

²⁷ The wise gains advancement by words, the shrewd wins favour from the great.

²⁸ Whoever tills the soil will have a full harvest, whoever wins favour from the great will secure pardon for offences.

²⁹ Presents and gifts blind the eyes of the wise and stifle rebukes like a muzzle on the mouth.

³⁰ Wisdom concealed, and treasure undiscovered, what use is either of these?

³¹ Better one who conceals his folly than one who conceals his wisdom.

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