Sirach 49

¹ The memory of Josiah is like a blending of incense prepared by the art of the perfumer; it is sweet as honey to every mouth, and like music at a banquet of wine.

² He was led aright in converting the people, and took away the abominations of iniquity.

³ He set his heart upon the Lord; in the days of wicked men he strengthened godliness.

⁴ Except David and Hezekiah and Josiah they all sinned greatly, for they forsook the law of the Most High; the kings of Judah came to an end;

⁵ for they gave their power to others, and their glory to a foreign nation,

⁶ who set fire to the chosen city of the sanctuary, and made her streets desolate, according to the word of Jeremiah.

⁷ For they had afflicted him; yet he had been consecrated in the womb as prophet, to pluck up and afflict and destroy, and likewise to build and to plant.

⁸ It was Ezekiel who saw the vision of glory which God showed him above the chariot of the cherubim.

⁹ For God remembered his enemies with storm, and did good to those who directed their ways aright.

¹⁰ May the bones of the twelve prophets revive from where they lie, for they comforted the people of Jacob and delivered them with confident hope.

¹¹ How shall we magnify Zerubbabel? He was like a signet on the right hand,

¹² and so was Jeshua the son of Jozadak; in their days they built the house and raised a temple holy to the Lord, prepared for everlasting glory.

¹³ The memory of Nehemiah also is lasting; he raised for us the walls that had fallen, and set up the gates and bars and rebuilt our ruined houses.

¹⁴ No one like Enoch has been created on earth, for he was taken up from the earth.

¹⁵ And no man like Joseph has been born, and his bones are cared for.

¹⁶ Shem and Seth were honored among men, and Adam above every living being in the creation.