Sirach 28

¹ The vengeful will suffer the LORD'S vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail.

² Forgive your neighbor's injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.

³ Should a man nourish anger against his fellows and expect healing from the LORD?

⁴ Should a man refuse mercy to his fellows, yet seek pardon for his own sins?

⁵ If he who is but flesh cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins?

⁶ Remember your last days, set enmity aside; remember death and decay, and cease from sin!

⁷ Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor; of the Most High's covenant, and overlook faults.

⁸ Avoid strife and your sins will be fewer, for a quarrelsome man kindles disputes,

⁹ Commits the sin of disrupting friendship and sows discord among those at peace.

¹⁰ The more wood, the greater the fire, the more underlying it, the fiercer the fight; The greater a man's strength, the sterner his anger, the greater his power, the greater his wrath.

¹¹ Pitch and resin make fires flare up, and insistent quarrels provoke bloodshed.

¹² If you blow upon a spark, it quickens into flame, if you spit on it, it dies out; yet both you do with your mouth!

¹³ Cursed be gossips and the double-tongued, for they destroy the peace of many.

¹⁴ A meddlesome tongue subverts many, and makes them refugees among the peoples; It destroys walled cities, and overthrows powerful dynasties.

¹⁵ A meddlesome tongue can drive virtuous women from their homes and rob them of the fruit of their toil;

¹⁶ Whoever heeds it has no rest, nor can he dwell in peace.

¹⁷ A blow from a whip raises a welt, but a blow from the tongue smashes bones;

¹⁸ Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but not as many as by the tongue.

¹⁹ Happy he who is sheltered from it, and has not endured its wrath; Who has not borne its yoke nor been fettered with its chain;

²⁰ For its yoke is a yoke of iron and its chains are chains of bronze!

²¹ Dire is the death it inflicts, besides which even the nether world is a gain;

²² It will not take hold among the just nor scorch them in its flame,

²³ But those who forsake the LORD will fall victims to it, as it burns among them unquenchably! It will hurl itself against them like a lion; like a panther, it will tear them to pieces.

²⁴ As you hedge round your vineyard with thorns, set barred doors over your mouth;

²⁵ As you seal up your silver and gold, so balance and weigh your words.

²⁶ Take care not to slip by your tongue and fall victim to your foe waiting in ambush.