Ecclesiasticus Chapter 41

Of the remembrance of death: of an evil and of a good name: of what things we ought to be ashamed.

41:1. O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that hath peace in his possessions!

41:2. To a man that is at rest, and whose ways are prosperous in all things, and that is yet able to take meat!

41:3. O death thy sentence is welcome to the man that is in need, and to him whose strength faileth:

41:4. Who is in a decrepit age, and that is in care about all things, and to the distrustful that loseth patience!

41:5. 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.

41:6. And what shall come upon thee by the good pleasure of the most High? whether ten, or a hundred, or a thousand years.

41:7. For among the dead there is no accusing of life.

41:8. The children of sinners become children of abominations, and they that converse near the houses of the ungodly.

41:9. The inheritance of the children of sinners shall perish, and with their posterity shall be a perpetual reproach.

41:10. The children will complain of an ungodly father, because for his sake they are in reproach.

41:11. Woe to you, ungodly men, who have forsaken the law of the most high Lord.

41:12. And if you be born, you shall be born in malediction: and if you die, in malediction shall be your portion.

41:13. All things that are of the earth, shall return into the earth: so the ungodly shall from malediction to destruction.

41:14. The mourning of men is about their body, but the name of the ungodly shall be blotted out.

41:15. Take care of a good name: for this shall continue with thee, more than a thousand treasures precious and great.

41:16. A good life hath its number of days: but a good name shall continue for ever.

41:17. 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?

41:18. Better is the man that hideth his folly, than the man that hideth his wisdom.

41:19. Wherefore have a shame of these things I am now going to speak of.

Have a shame, etc. . .That is to say, be ashamed of doing any of these things, which I am now going to mention; for though sometimes shamefacedness is not to be indulged: yet it is often good and necessary: as in the following cases.

41:20. For it is not good to keep all shamefacedness: and all things do not please all men in opinion.

41:21. Be ashamed of fornication before father and mother: and of a lie before a governor and a man in power:

41:22. Of an offence before a prince, and a judge: of iniquity before a congregation and a people:

41:23. Of injustice before a companion and friend: and in regard to the place where thou dwellest,

41:24. 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:

41:25. Of silence before them that salute thee: of looking upon a harlot: and of turning away thy face from thy kinsman.

41:26. Turn not away thy face from thy neighbour, and of taking away a portion and not restoring.

41:27. Gaze not upon another man's wife, and be not inquisitive after his handmaid, and approach not her bed.

41:28. Be ashamed of upbraiding speeches before friends: and after thou hast given, upbraid not.