Sirach 16

NEW JERUSALEM	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 Do not long for a brood of worthless children, and do not take pleasure in godless sons.	1 Rejoice not in ungodly children, if they be multiplied: neither be delighted in them, if the fear of God be not with them.
2 However many you have, take no pleasure in them, unless the fear of the Lord lives among them.	2 Trust not to their life, and respect not their labours.
3 Do not count on their having long life, do not put too much faith in their number; for better have onethan a thousand, better die childless than have children who are godless.	3 For better is one that feareth God, than a thousand ungodly children.
4 One person of sense can populate a city, but a race of lawless people will be destroyed.	4 And it is better to die without children, than to leave ungodly children.
5 My eyes have seen many such things, my ears have heard things even more impressive.	5 By one that is wise a country shall be inhabited, the tribe of the ungodly shall become desolate.
6 Fire is kindled in a sinful society, Retribution blazes in a rebel ious nation.	6 Many such things hath my eyes seen, and greater things than these my ear hath heard.
7 God did not pardon the giants of old who, confident in their strength, had rebel ed.	7 In the congregation of sinners a fire shall be kindled, and in an unbelieving nation wrath shall dame out.
8 He did not spare the people with whom Lot lived; he abhorred them, rather, for their pride.	8 The ancient giants did not obtain pardon for their sine, who were destroyed trusting to their own strength:
9 He was pitiless to the nation of perdition -- those people who gloried in their sins-	9 And he spared not the place where Lot sojourned, but abhorred them for the pride of their word.
10 as also to the six hundred thousand men on the march, who had banded together in their obstinacy.	10 He had not pity on them, destroying the whole nation that extolled themselves in their sine.
11 And had there been only one man stubborn, it would have been amazing had he escaped unpunished,since mercy and wrath alike belong to the Lord who is mighty to forgive and to pour out wrath.	11 So did he with the six hundred thousand footmen, who were gathered together in the hardness of their heart: and if one had been stiffnecked, it is a wonder if he had escaped unpunished:
12 As great as his mercy, so is his severity; he judges each person as his deeds deserve:	12 For mercy and wrath are with him. He is mighty to forgive, and to pour out indignation:
13 the sinner wil not escape with his il -gotten gains nor the patience of the devout go for nothing.	13 According as his mercy is, so his correction judgeth a man according to his works.
14 He takes note of every charitable action, and everyone is treated as he deserves.	14 The sinner shall not escape in his rapines, and the patience of him that sheweth mercy shall not be put off.
15	15 All mercy shall make a place for every man according to the merit of his works, and according to the wisdom of his sojournment.
16	16 Say not: I shall be hidden from God. and who shall remember me from on high?
17 Do not say, 'I shal hide from the Lord; who is going to remember me up there? I shall not be noticedamong so many people; what am I in the immensity of creation?'	17 In such a multitude I shall not be known: for what is my soul in such an immense creation?
18 For see, the sky and the heavens above the sky, the abyss and the earth shake at his visitation.	18 Behold the heaven, and the heavens of heavens, the deep, and all the earth, and the things that are in them, shall be moved in his sight,
19 The mountains and earth's foundations alike quail and tremble when he looks at them.	19 The mountains also, and the hills, end the foundations of the earth: when God shall look upon them, they shall be shaken with trembling.
20 But to all this no one gives thought. Who keeps his movements in mind?	20 And in all these things the heart is senseless: and every heart is understood by him:
21 The storm wind itself is invisible, and most of what he does goes undetected.	21 And his ways who shall understand, and the storm, which no eye of man see?
22 'Who wil report whether justice has been done? Who wil be watching? The covenant is remote!'	22 For many of his works are hidden: hut the works of his justice who shall declare? or who shall endure? for the testament is far from some, and the examination of all is in the end.
23 Such are the thoughts of the person of little sense, stupid, misguided, cherishing his fol y.	23 He that wanteth understanding thinketh vain things: and the foolish, and erring man, thinketh foolish things.
24 Listen to me, my child, and learn knowledge, and give your whole mind to my words.	24 Hearken to me, my son, and learn the discipline of understanding, and attend to my words in thy heart.
25 I shal expound discipline methodically and proclaim knowledge with precision.	25 And I will shew forth good doctrine in equity, and will seek to declare wisdom: and attend to my words in thy heart, whilst with equity of spirit I tell thee the virtues that God hath put upon his works from the beginning, and I shew forth in truth his knowledge.
26 When God created his works in the beginning, he assigned them their places as soon as they weremade.	26 The works of God are done in judgment from the beginning, and from the making of them he distinguished their parts, and their beginnings in their generations.
27 He determined his works for al time, from their origins to their distant generations. They know neitherhunger nor weariness, and they never desert their duties.	27 He beautified their works for ever, they have neither hungered, nor laboured, and they have not ceased from their works.
28 Not one has ever got in the way of another, and they wil never disobey his word.	28 Nor shall any of them straiten his neighbour at any time.
29 And afterwards the Lord looked at the earth, and filled it with his good things.	29 Be not thou incredulous to his word.
30 He covered its surface with every kind of animal, and to it they wil return.	30 After this God looked upon the earth, and filled it with his goods.
	31 The soul of every living thing hath shewn forth before the face thereof, and into it they return again.