Sirach 16

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