Sirach 10

1A wise judge sets his people in order, and the rule of one who understands is well arranged.

2An undisciplined king will ruin a city, but a city is inhabited through the wisdom of its rulers.

3As the judge of a people, so are his officials; and as the head of a city, so are its inhabitants.

4In the hand of God is the rule of every man, and before the lawgiver he sets his splendor.

5In the hand of God is the rule of the world, and in due time he will raise up over it the right man.

6For any offense, do not repay your neighbor with evil, and do not walk in the way of pride.

7Pride is hateful to the Lord and to men, and from both comes oppressive wrongdoing.

8Kingship passes from nation to nation because of violence and arrogance.

9Why does dust and ashes exalt itself, though in its life its body is lifted up?

10A slight illness makes a physician turn pale; a king today, and tomorrow he falls.

11At a man's death, his inheritance is maggots and worms, gnats and creeping things.

12The beginning of a man's pride is defiance, and his heart turns away from his Maker.

13For the hope of arrogance is sin, and its source pours out wickedness.

14Therefore God filled his heart and struck him, and struck him down completely.

15God overturned the thrones of the proud, and seated the humble in their place.

16God erased the traces of nations, and their root to the very ground.

17He swept them from the earth and uprooted them, and he made their memory cease from the earth.

18Arrogance and insolence are not fitting for a human being, much less for one born of a woman.

19What offspring is honorable? Human offspring. What offspring is honorable? Those who fear God. What offspring is honorable? Those who keep the commandment.

20What kind of offspring is contemptible? The offspring of one who transgresses a commandment.

21Among brothers their chief is honored, and one who fears God among his people.

22A resident alien, a foreigner, a stranger, and a poor man—their glory is the fear of God.

23One should not despise an intelligent poor man, nor honor a wrongdoer who has been exalted.

24A ruler, a governor, and a judge are honored, but none is greater than one who fears God.

25Do not act wisely in doing your work, and do not boast in a time of distress.

26Do not act too wisely to serve your own desire, and do not honor yourself in the time of your need.

27Better is one who works and has abundant wealth than one who honors himself and lacks food.

28Who will justify the one who sins against his own soul, and who will honor the one who dishonors his own life?

29Who will declare righteous the one who condemns himself, and who will honor the one who dishonors himself?

30There is a poor man who is honored because of his insight, and there is one who is honored because of his wealth.

31How honored one is in his wealth, and how despised in his poverty.