Chapter 34

¹ Watching for riches consumeth the flesh,

Sir 34:1

² Watching care will not let a man slumber,

Sir 34:2

³ The rich hath great labor in gathering riches together;

Sir 34:3

⁴ The poor laboreth in his poor estate;

Sir 34:4

⁵ He that loveth gold shall not be justified,

Sir 34:5

⁶ Gold hath been the ruin of many,

Sir 34:6

⁷ It is a stumbling block unto them that sacrifice unto it,

Sir 34:7

⁸ Blessed is the rich that is found without blemish,

Sir 34:8

⁹ Who is he? and we will call him blessed:

Sir 34:9

¹⁰ Who hath been tried thereby, and found perfect?

Sir 34:10

¹¹ His goods shall be established,

Sir 34:11

¹² If thou sit at a bountiful table,

Sir 34:12

¹³ Remember that a wicked eye is an evil thing:

Sir 34:13

¹⁴ Stretch not thy hand whithersoever it looketh,

Sir 34:14

¹⁵ Judge of thy neighbor by thyself:

Sir 34:15

¹⁶ Eat, as it becometh a man, those things which are set before thee;

Sir 34:16

¹⁷ Leave off first for manners’ sake;

Sir 34:17

¹⁸ When thou sittest among many,

Sir 34:18

¹⁹ A very little is sufficient for a man well nurtured,

Sir 34:19

²⁰ Sound sleep cometh of moderate eating:

Sir 34:20

²¹ And if thou hast been forced to eat,

Sir 34:21

²² My son, hear me, and despise me not,

Sir 34:22

²³ Whoso is liberal of his meat, men shall speak well of him;

Sir 34:23

²⁴ But against him that is a niggard of his meat the whole city shall murmur;

Sir 34:24

²⁵ Show not thy valiantness in wine;

Sir 34:25

²⁶ The furnace proveth the edge by dipping:

Sir 34:26

²⁷ Wine is as good as life to a man, if it be drunk moderately:

Sir 34:27

²⁸ Wine measurably drunk and in season

Sir 34:28

²⁹ But wine drunken with excess maketh bitterness of the mind,

Sir 34:29

³⁰ Drunkenness increaseth the rage of a fool till he offend:

Sir 34:30

³¹ Rebuke not thy neighbor at the wine,

Sir 34:31