World English Bible

1 And after him rose up Nathan

To prophesy in the days of David.

2 As is the fat when it is separated from the peace offering,

So was Davidseparatedfrom the children of Israel.

3 He played with lions as with kids,

And with bears as with lambs of the flock.

4 In his youth did he not kill a giant,

And take away reproach from the people,

When he lifted up his hand with a sling stone,

And beat down the boasting of Goliath?

5 For he called upon the Most High Lord;

And he gave him strength in his right hand,

To kill a man mighty in war,

To exalt the horn of his people.

6 So they glorified him forhisten thousands,

And praised him for the blessings of the Lord,

In that there was given him a diadem of glory.

7 For he destroyed the enemies on every side,

And brought to nothing the Philistines his adversaries,

Brake their horn in pieces to this day.

8 In every work of his he gave thanks to the Holy One Most High with words of glory;

With his whole heart he sang praise,

And loved him that made him.

9 Also he set singers before the altar,

And to make sweet melody by their music.

10 He gave comeliness to the feasts,

And set in order the seasons to perfection,

While they praised his holy name,

And the sanctuary sounded from early morning.

11 The Lord took away his sins,

And exalted his horn for ever;

And gave him a covenant of kings,

And a throne of glory in Israel.

12 After him rose up a son, a man of understanding;

And for his sake he lived at large.

13 Solomon reigned in days of peace;

And to him God gave rest round about,

That he might set up a house for his name,

And prepare a sanctuary for ever.

14 How wise was you made in your youth,

And filled as a river with understanding!

15 Your soul covered the earth,

And you filled it withdark parables.

16 Your name reached to the aisles afar off;

And for your peace you were beloved.

17 For your songs and proverbs and parables,

And for your interpretations, the countries marveled at you.

18 By the name of the Lord God,

Which is called the God of Israel,

You did gather gold as tin,

And did multiply silver as lead.

19 You did bow your loins to women,

And in your body you were brought into subjection.

20 You did blemish your honor,

And profane your seed,

To bring wrath upon your children;

And I was grieved for your folly:

21 So that the sovereignty was divided,

And out of Ephraim ruled a disobedient kingdom.

22 But the Lord will never forsake his mercy;

And he will not destroy any of his works,

Nor blot out the posterity of his elect;

And the seed of him that loved him he will not take away;

And he gave a remnant to Jacob,

And to David a root out of him.

23 Andsorested Solomon with his fathers;

And of his seed he left behind him Rehoboam,

Eventhe foolishness of the people, and one that lacked understanding,

Who made the people to revolt by his counsel.

Also Jeroboam the son of Nebat,

Who made Israel to sin,

And gave to Ephraim a way of sin.

24 And their sins were multiplied exceedingly,

To remove them from their land.

25 For they sought out all manner of wickedness,

Till vengeance should come upon them.

1 Also there arose Elijah the prophet as fire,

And his word burned like a torch:

2 Who brought a famine upon them,

And by his zeal made them few in number.

3 By the word of the Lord he shut up the heaven:

Thrice did he thus bring down fire.

4 How was you glorified, O Elijah, in your wondrous deeds!

And who shall glory like to you?

5 Who did raise up a dead man from death,

And fromthe place of the dead, by the word of the Most High:

6 Who brought down kings to destruction,

And honorable men from their bed:

7 Who heard rebuke in Sinai,

And judgements of vengeance in Horeb:

8 Who anointed kings for retribution,

And prophets to succeed after him:

9 Who was taken up in a tempest of fire,

In a chariot of fiery horses:

10 Who was recorded for reproofs in their seasons,

To pacify anger, before it brake forth into wrath;

To turn the heart of the father to the son,

And to restore the tribes of Jacob.

11 Blessed are they that saw you,

And they that have been beautified with love;

For we also shall surely live.

12 Elijahit was,who was wrapped in a tempest:

And Elisha was filled with his spirit;

And inallhis days he was not moved bythe fear ofany ruler,

And no one brought him into subjection.

13 Nothing was too high for him;

And when he was laid on sleep his body prophesied.

14 As in his life he did wonders,

So in death were his works marvelous.

15 For all this the people repented not,

And they departed not from their sins,

Till they were carried away as a spoil from their land,

And were scattered through all the earth;

And the people was left very few in number,

And a rulerwas leftin the house of David.

16 Some of them did that which was pleasingto God,

And some multiplied sins.

17 Hezekiah fortified his city,

And brought inwater into the midst of them:

He digged the sheer rock with iron,

And builded up wells for waters.

18 In his days Sennacherib came up,

And sent Rabshakeh, and departed;

And he lifted up his hand against Sion,

And boasted great things in his arrogancy.

19 Then were their hearts and their hands shaken,

And they were in pain, as women in travail;

20 And they called upon the Lord which is merciful,

Spreading forth their hands to him:

And the Holy One heard them speedily out of Heaven,

And delivered them by the hand of Isaiah.

21 He struck the camp of the Assyrians,

And his angel utterly destroyed them.

22 For Hezekiah did that which was pleasing to the Lord,

And was strong in the ways of David his father,

Which Isaiah the prophet commanded,

Who was great and faithful in his vision.

23 In his days the sun went backward;

And he added life to the king.

24 He saw by an excellent spirit what should come to pass at the last;

And he comforted them that mourned in Sion.

25 He showed the things that should be to the end of time,

And the hidden things or ever they came.

1 The memorial of Josiah is like the composition of incense

Prepared by the work of the apothecary:

It shall be sweet as honey in every mouth,

And as music at a banquet of wine.

2 He behaved himself uprightly in the conversion of the people,

And took away the abominations of iniquity.

3 He set his heart right toward the Lord;

In the days of wicked men he made godliness to prevail.

4 Except David and Hezekiah and Josiah,

All committed trespass:

For they forsook the law of the Most High;

The kings of Judah failed.

5 For they gave theirpower to others,

And their glory to a strange nation.

6 They set on fire the chosen city of the sanctuary,

And made her streets desolate,as it was writtenby the hand of Jeremiah.

7 For they entreated him evil;

And yet he was sanctified in the womb to be a prophet,

To root out, and to afflict, and to destroy;

Andin like manner to build and to plant.

8 It wasEzekiel who saw the vision of glory,

WhichGodshowed him upon the chariot of the cherubim.

9 For verily he remembered the enemies instorm,

And to do good to them that directed their ways aright.

10 Also of the twelve prophets

May the bones flourish again out of their place.

And he comforted Jacob,

And delivered them by confidence of hope.

11 How shall we magnify Zerubbabel?

And he was as a signet on the right hand:

12 So was Jesus the son of Josedek:

Who in their days builded the house,

And exalted apeople holy to the Lord,

Prepared for everlasting glory.

13 Also of Nehemiah the memorial is great;

Who raised up for us the walls that were fallen,

And set up the gates and bars,

And raised up our homes again.

14 No man was created upon the earth such as was Enoch;

For he was taken up from the earth.

15 Neither was there a man born like to Joseph,

A governor of his brethren, a stay of the people:

Yes, his bones were visited.

16 Shem and Seth were glorified among men;

And above every living thing in the creation is Adam.

1 It wasSimon, the son of Onias, thegreat priest,

Who in his life repaired the house,

And in his days strengthened the temple:

2 And by him was built from the foundation the height of the doublewall,

The lofty underworks of the inclosure of the temple:

3 In his days the cistern of waters wasdiminished,

The brazen vessel in compass as the sea.

4 It washe that took thought for his people that they should not fall,

And fortified the cityagainst besieging:

5 How glorious was he when the people gathered round him

At his coming forth out of thesanctuary!

6 As the morning star in the midst of a cloud,

As the moon at the full:

7 As the sun shining forth upon the temple of the Most High,

And as the rainbow giving light in clouds of glory:

8 As the flower of roses in the days of newfruits,

As lilies at the waterspring,

As the shoot of the frankencense tree in the time of summer:

9 As fire and incense in the censer,

As a vessel all of beaten gold

Adorned with all manner of precious stones:

10 As an olive tree budding forth fruits,

And as a cypress growing high among the clouds.

11 When he took up the robe of glory,

And put on the perfection of exultation,

In the ascent of the holy altar,

He made glorious the precinct of the sanctuary.

12 And when he received the portions out of the priests’ hands,

Himself also standing by the hearth of the altar,

His brethren as a garland round about him,

He was as a young cedar in Libanus;

And as stems of palm trees compassed they him round about,

13 And all the sons of Aaron in their glory,

And the Lord’s offering in their hands, before all the congregation of Israel.

14 And finishing the service at the altars,

That he might adorn the offering of the Most High, the Almighty,

15 He stretched out his hand to thecup,

And poured out the cup of the grape;

He poured out at the foot of the altar

A sweet smelling savor to the Most High, the King of all.

16 Then shouted the sons of Aaron,

They sounded the trumpets of beaten work,

They made a great noise to be heard,

For a remembrance before the Most High.

17 Then all the people together hasted,

And fell down upon the earth on their faces

To worship their Lord, the Almighty, God Most High.

18 The singers also praised him with their voices;

In the whole house was there made sweet melody.

19 And the people implored the Lord Most High,

In prayer before him that is merciful.

Till theworship of the Lord should be ended;

And so they accomplished his service.

20 Then he went down, and lifted up his hands

Over the whole congregation of the children of Israel,

To give blessing to the Lord with his lips,

And to glory in his name.

21 And he bowed himself down in worship the second time,

To declare the blessing from the Most High.

22 And now bless you⌃ the God of all,

Which everywhere does great things,

Which exalts our days from the womb,

And deals with us according to his mercy.

23 May he grant us joyfulness of heart,

And that peace may be in our days in Israel for the days of eternity:

24 To intrust his mercy with us;

And let him deliver us in his time!

25 With two nations is my soul vexed,

And the third is no nation:

26 They that sit upon the mountain ofSamaria,andthe Philistines,

And that foolish people that dwells in Sichem.

27 I havewritten in this book the instruction of understanding and knowledge,

I Jesus, the son of Sirach Eleazar, of Jerusalem,

Who out of his heart poured forth wisdom.

28 Blessed is he that shall be exercised in these things;

And he that lays them up in his heart shall become wise.

29 For if he do them, he shall be strong to all things:

For the light of the Lord is hisguide.

A Prayer of Jesus the son of Sirach.

1 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, O King,

And will praise you, O God my Saviour:

I do give thanks to your name:

2 For you were my protector and helper,

And did deliver my body out of destruction,

And out of the snare of a slanderous tongue,

From lips that forge lies,

And was my helper before them that stood by;

3 And did deliver me, according to the abundance of your mercy, andgreatnessof your name,

From the gnashingsof teethready to devour,

Out of the hand of such as sought my life,

Out of the manifold afflictions which I had;

4 From the choking of a fire on every side,

And out of the midst of fire which I kindled not;

5 Out of the depth of the belly ofthe grave,

And from an unclean tongue,

And from lying words,

6 The slander of an unrighteous tongue to the king.

My soul drew near even to death,

And my life was near tothe grave beneath.

7 They compassed me on every side,

And there was none to helpme.

I waslooking for the succour of men,

And it was not.

8 And I remembered your mercy, O Lord,

And your working which has been from everlasting,

How you deliver them that wait for you,

And save them out of the hand of the enemies.

9 And I lifted up my supplication from the earth,

And prayed for deliverance from death.

10 I called upon the Lord, the Father of my Lord,

That he would not forsake me in the days of affliction,

In the time when there was no help against the proud.

11 I will praise your name continually,

And will sing praise with thanksgiving;

And my supplication was heard:

12 For you saved me from destruction,

And delivered me from the evil time:

Therefore will I give thanks and praise to you,

And bless the name of the Lord.

13 When I was yet young,

Or ever I went abroad,

I sought wisdom openly in my prayer.

14 Before the temple I asked for her,

And I will seek her out even to the end.

15 Fromherflower as from the ripening grape my heart delighted in her:

My foot trod in uprightness,

From my youth I tracked her out.

16 I bowed down mine ear a little, and received her,

And found for myself much instruction.

17 I profited in her:

To him that gives me wisdom I will give glory.

18 For I purposed to practice her,

And I was zealous for that which is good;

And I shall never be put to shame.

19 My soul has wrestled in her,

And in my doing I was exact:

I spread forth my hands to the heaven above,

And bewailed my ignorances of her.

20 I set my soul aright to her,

And in pureness I found her.

I got me a heartjoinedwith her from the beginning:

Therefore shall I not be forsaken.

21 My inward part also was troubled to seek her:

Therefore I have gotten a good possession.

22 The Lord gave me a tongue for my reward;

And I will praise him therewith.

23 Draw near to me, you⌃ unlearned,

And lodge in the house of instruction.

24 Say, wherefore are you⌃ lacking in these things,

And your souls are very thirsty?

25 I opened my mouth, and spoke,

Get her for yourselves without money.

26 Put your neck under the yoke,

And let your soul receive instruction:

She is hard at hand to find.

27 Behold with your eyes,

How that I laboured but a little,

And found for myself much rest.

28 Get you instruction with a great sum of silver,

And gain much gold by her.

29 May your soul rejoice in his mercy,

And may you⌃ not be put to shame in praising him.

30 Work your work before the time comes,

And in his time he will give you your reward.