en_wbms - Sir 38 - Ozzuu Bible

¹ Honour thou a leech, for need; for why the Highest hath made [or formed] him.

² For why all medicine is of God [or Of God forsooth is all leeching]; and he shall take of the king a gift.

³ The knowing of a leech shall enhance his head; and he shall be praised in the sight of great men.

⁴ The Highest hath made [or formed] of the earth medicine; and a prudent man shall not loathe it.

⁵ Whether bitter water was not made sweet of a tree? The virtue of those things came by experience to the knowing of men;

⁶ and the Highest gave knowing to men, for to be honoured in his marvels.

⁷ A man healing [or curing] in these things, shall assuage sorrow,

⁸ and an ointment-maker shall make pigments of sweetness, and shall make anointings of health; and his works shall not be ended. For why the peace of God is on the face of earth.

⁹ My son, despise not thyself in thy sickness [or infirmity]; but pray thou the Lord, and he shall heal [or cure] thee.

¹⁰ Turn thou away from sin, and dress thine hands, and cleanse thine heart from all sin.

¹¹ Give thou sweetness, and the mind of clean [or tried] flour of wheat, and make thou fat [the] offer-ing;

¹² and give thou place to a leech. For the Lord made him, and depart he not [or go he not away] from thee; for his works be needful to thee.

¹³ For why time is, when thou shalt fall [or run] into the hands of them.

¹⁴ Forsooth they shall beseech the Lord, that he dress [or right rule] the work of them, and health for their living.

¹⁵ He that trespasseth in the sight of him, that made him, shall fall into the hands of the leech.

¹⁶ Son, bring thou forth tears on a dead man, and thou as suffering hard things begin to weep; and by [or after] doom, cover thou the body of him, and despise thou not his bury-ing.

¹⁷ But for backbiting, bear thou bitterly the mourning of him for one day; and be thou comforted for sorrow [or take comfort for heaviness]. And make thou mourning after his merit [or deserving] for one day, either twain [or two], for backbiting.

¹⁸ For why death hasteth of sorrow, and covereth virtue; and the sorrow of heart boweth the head.

¹⁹ Sorrow dwelleth in leading away; and the chattel [or substance] of a needy man is after his heart.

²⁰ Give thou not thine heart in sorrow, but put it away from thee; and have thou mind on the last things,

²¹ and do not thou forget. For why no returning is from death to this present life, and thou shalt nothing profit to this dead man; and thou shalt harm or treat worst thyself.

²² Be thou mindful of my doom; for also thine shall be thus, to me yester-day, and to thee today.

²³ In the rest of a dead man, make thou his mind to have rest; and comfort thou him, in the going out of his spirit.

²⁴ Write thou wisdom in the time of voidness; and he that is made less in deeds, shall perceive wisdom; for he shall be filled of [or with] wisdom.

²⁵ He that holdeth the plow, and he that hath glory in a goad, driveth oxes [or oxen] with a prick, and he liveth in the works of those [or them]; and his telling is in the sons of bulls.

²⁶ He shall give his heart to turn furrows; and his waking shall be about the fatness of kine.

²⁷ So each carpenter, and principal workman, that passeth the night as the day; that engraveth images [or brooches] engraved, and the busyness of him diverseth [or varieth] the painture; he shall give his heart [in] to the likeness of painture, and by his waking he performeth the work.

²⁸ So a smith sitting beside the anfelt [or stithy], and beholding the work of iron, the heat of fire burneth his fleshes [or flesh]; and he striveth in the heat of the furnace. The voice of a hammer maketh new his ear; and his eye is against the likeness of a vessel. He shall give his heart into the performing of works; and by his waking he shall adorn unperfection, that is, matter which he bringeth to perfection of form.

²⁹ So a potter sitting at his work, turning a wheel with his feet, which is put ever[more] in busyness for his work; and all his working is un-numberable [or without number].

³⁰ In his arm he shall form clay; and before his feet he shall bow his virtue. He shall give his heart to end perfectly something; and by his waking he shall cleanse the furnace.

³¹ All these men hoped in their hands; and each man is wise in his craft.

³² A city is not builded [or built] without all these men. And they shall not dwell [in], neither go [in];

³³ and they shall not skip over [or over-leap] into the church. They shall not sit on the seat of a judge; and they shall not understand the testament of doom, neither they shall make open teaching and doom; and they shall not be found in parables.

³⁴ But they shall confirm the creature of the world, and their prayer is the working of craft;