1 | O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that hath peace in his possessions! |
2 | To a man that is at rest, and whose ways are prosperous in all things, and that is yet able to take meat! |
3 | O death, thy sentence is welcome to the man that is in need, and to him whose strength faileth: |
4 | Who is in a decrepit age, and that is in care about all things, and to the distrustful that loseth patience! |
5 | Fear not the sentence of death. Remember what things have been before thee, and what shall come after thee: this sentence is from the Lord upon all flesh. |
6 | And what shall come upon thee by the good pleasure of the most High? Whether ten, or a hundred, or a thousand years. |
7 | For among the dead there is no accusing of life. |
8 | The children of sinners become children of abominations, and they that converse near the houses of the ungodly. |
9 | The inheritance of the children of sinners shall perish, and with their posterity shall be a perpetual reproach. |
10 | The children will complain of an ungodly father, because for his sake they are in reproach. |
11 | Woe to you, ungodly men, who have forsaken the law of the most high Lord. |
12 | And if you be born, you shall be born in malediction: and if you die, in malediction shall be your portion. |
13 | All things that are of the earth, shall return into the earth: so the ungodly shall from malediction to destruction. |
14 | The mourning of men is about their body, but the name of the ungodly shall be blotted out. |
15 | Take care of a good name: for this shall continue with thee, more than a thousand treasures precious and great. |
16 | A good life hath its number of days: but a good name shall continue for ever. |
17 | My children, keep discipline in peace: for wisdom that is hid, and a treasure that is not seen, what profit is there in them both? |
18 | Better is the man that hideth his folly, than the man that hideth his wisdom. |
19 | Wherefore have a shame of these things I am now going to speak of. |
20 | For it is not good to keep all shamefacedness: and all things do not please all men in opinion. |
21 | Be ashamed of fornication before father and mother: and of a lie before a governor and a man in power: |
22 | Of an offence before a prince, and a judge: of iniquity before a congregation and a people: |
23 | Of injustice before a companion and friend: and in regard to the place where thou dwellest, |
24 | Of theft, and of the truth of God, and the covenant: of leaning with thy elbow over meat, and of deceit in giving and taking: |
25 | Of silence before them that salute thee: of looking upon a harlot: and of turning away thy face from thy kinsman. |
26 | Turn not sway thy face from thy neighbour, and of taking away a portion and not restoring. |
27 | Gaze not upon another man's wife, and be not inquisitive after his handmaid, and approach not her bed. |
28 | Be ashamed of upbraiding speeches before friends: and after thou hast given, upbraid not. |