Catholic Public Domain Version

Sirach 29:14-32 Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV)

14. Let your treasure be in the precepts of the Most High, and it will benefit you more than gold.

15. Store your alms in the hearts of the poor, and it will obtain help for you against all evil.

16. Better than the shield or the lance of a powerful man,

17. it will fight for you against your enemy.

18. A good man offers credit for the sake of his neighbor. But one who abandons him to himself will perish in shame.

19. You should not forget the kindness of your benefactor. For he has offered his life on your behalf.

20. The sinner and the unclean flee from such promises.

21. A sinner attributes to himself the goods of his loan. And an ungrateful mind will abandon the one who has freed him.

22. A man offers credit to his neighbor. But when he will have lost respect, he will abandon him.

23. A wicked promise has destroyed many who had good intentions, and has tossed them like a wave on the ocean.

24. It has caused powerful men to travel around, and they have wandered amid foreign nations.

25. A sinner transgressing the commandment of the Lord will fall into a wicked promise. And he who undertakes many things will fall into judgment.

26. Help your neighbor to recover according to your ability, but attend to yourself, lest you also fall.

27. The primary need in a man's life is water and bread, and clothing, and a house to protect modesty.

28. A pauper's food under a roof of boards is better than a splendid feast on a sojourn away from home.

29. Let yourself be pleased with little instead of much, and you will not hear the reproach of being away from home.

30. It is a wicked life to go from house to house as a guest. For wherever he is a guest, he will not act confidently, nor open his mouth.

31. He will entertain, and feed, and give drink to the ungrateful, and beyond this, he will listen to bitter words:

32. "Go, my guest, and set the table, and let others eat from what you have in your hand."