Sirach 2

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 My son, when you come to serve the LORD, prepare yourself for trials.	1 Son, when you apply yourself to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare your soul for temptation.
2 Be sincere of heart and steadfast, undisturbed in time of adversity.	2 Humble your heart, and persevere. Incline your ear, and accept words of understanding. And you should not hurry away in the time of distress.
3 Cling to him, forsake him not; thus will your future be great.	3 Endure steadfastly for God. Join yourself to God, and persevere, so that your life may increase in the very end.
4 Accept whatever befalls you, in crushing misfortune be patient;	4 Accept everything that will happened to you, and persevere in your sorrow, and have patience in your humiliation.
5 For in fire gold is tested, and worthy men in the crucible of humiliation.	5 For gold and silver are tested in fire, yet truly, acceptable men are tested in the furnace of humiliation.
6 Trust God and he will help you; make straight your ways and hope in him.	6 Believe God, and he will restore you to health. And straighten your way, and hope in him. Observe his fear, and grow old in it.
7 You who fear the LORD, wait for his mercy, turn not away lest you fall.	7 You who fear the Lord, wait for his mercy. And do not turn away from him, lest you fall.
8 You who fear the LORD, trust him, and your reward will not be lost.	8 You who fear the Lord, believe in him. And your reward will not be taken away.
9 You who fear the LORD, hope for good things, for lasting joy and mercy.	9 You who fear the Lord, hope in him. And mercy will approach you, to your delight.
10 Study the generations long past and understand; has anyone hoped in the LORD and been disappointed? Has anyone persevered in his fear and been forsaken? has anyone called upon him and been rebuffed?	10 You who fear the Lord, love him. And your hearts will be illuminated.
11 Compassionate and merciful is the LORD; he forgives sins, he saves in time of trouble.	11 My sons, consider the nations of men, and know that not one of them hoped in the Lord and was confounded.
12 Woe to craven hearts and drooping hands, to the sinner who treads a double path!	12 For who has remained in his commandment and been abandoned? Or who has called upon him, and yet he despised him?
13 Woe to the faint of heart who trust not, who therefore will have no shelter!	13 For God is upright and merciful, and he will forgive sins in the day of tribulation. And he is the Protector to all those who seek him in truth.
14 Woe to you who have lost hope! what will you do at the visitation of the LORD?	14 Woe to the duplicitous heart, and to the wicked lips, and to the hands that do evil, and to the sinner who walks the earth by two ways!
15 Those who fear the LORD disobey not his words; those who love him keep his ways.	15 Woe to the dissolute in heart, who do not trust God! For, as a result, they will not be protected by him.
16 Those who fear the LORD seek to please him, those who love him are filled with his law.	16 Woe to those who have lost endurance, and who have abandoned upright ways, and who have turned aside to depraved ways!
17 Those who fear the LORD prepare their hearts and humble themselves before him.	17 And what will they do when the Lord begins to examine them?
18 Let us fall into the hands of the LORD and not into the hands of men, For equal to his majesty is the mercy that he shows.	18 Those who fear the Lord will not be unbelieving toward his Word. And those who love him will keep to his way.
	19 Those who fear the Lord will seek the things that are well-pleasing to him. And those who love him will be filled with his law.
	20 Those who fear the Lord will prepare their hearts, and they will sanctify their souls in his sight.
	21 Those who fear the Lord keep his commandments, and they will have patience even until his examination,
	22 saying: “If we do not do penance, then we will fall into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of men.”
	23 For according to his greatness, so also is his mercy with him.