Sirach 36

¹ Come to our aid, O God of the universe, and put all the nations in dread of you!

² Raise your hand against the heathen, that they may realize your power.

³ As you have used us to show them your holiness, so now use them to show us your glory.

⁴ Thus they will know, as we know, that there is no God but you.

⁵ Give new signs and work new wonders; show forth the splendor of your right hand and arm;

⁶ Rouse your anger, pour out wrath, humble the enemy, scatter the foe.

⁷ Hasten the day, bring on the time;

⁸ Let raging fire consume the fugitive, and your people's oppressors meet destruction.

⁹ crush the heads of the hostile rulers.

¹⁰ Gather all the tribes of Jacob, that they may inherit the land as of old,

¹¹ Show mercy to the people called by your name; Israel, whom you named your first-born.

¹² Take pity on your holy city, Jerusalem, your dwelling place.

¹³ Fill Zion with your majesty, your temple with your glory.

¹⁴ Give evidence of your deeds of old; fulfill the prophecies spoken in your name,

¹⁵ Reward those who have hoped in you, and let your prophets be proved true.

¹⁶ Hear the prayer of your servants, for you are ever gracious to your people;

¹⁷ Thus it will be known to the very ends of the earth that you are the eternal God.

¹⁸ The throat can swallow any food, yet some foods are more agreeable than others;

¹⁹ As the palate tests meat by its savor, so does a keen mind insincere words.

²⁰ A deceitful character causes grief, but an experienced man can turn the tables on him.

²¹ Though any man may be accepted as a husband, yet one girl will be more suitable than another:

²² A woman's beauty makes her husband's face light up, for it surpasses all else that charms the eye;

²³ And if, besides, her speech is kindly, his lot is beyond that of mortal men.

²⁴ A wife is her husband's richest treasure, a helpmate, a steadying column.

²⁵ A vineyard with no hedge will be overrun; a man with no wife becomes a homeless wanderer.

²⁶ Who will trust an armed band that shifts from city to city?

²⁷ Or a man who has no nest, but lodges where night overtakes him?