Sirach 38

¹Honor a physician according to your need with the honors due to him, for truly the Lord has created him. ²For healing comes from the Most High, and he shall receive a gift from the king. ³The skill of the physician will lift up his head. He will be admired in the sight of great men. ⁴The Lord created medicines out of the earth. A prudent man will not despise them. ⁵Wasn’t water made sweet with wood, that its power might be known? ⁶He gave men skill that he might be glorified in his marvelous works. ⁷With them he heals and takes away pain. ⁸With these, the pharmacist makes a mixture. God’s works won’t be brought to an end. From him, peace is upon the face of the earth. ⁹My son, in your sickness don’t be negligent, but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you. ¹⁰Put away wrong doing, and direct your hands in righteousness. Cleanse your heart from all sin. ¹¹Give a sweet savor and a memorial of fine flour, and pour oil on your offering, according to your means. ¹²Then give place to the physician, for truly the Lord has created him. Don’t let him leave you, for you need him. ¹³There is a time when recovery is in their hands. ¹⁴For they also shall ask the Lord to prosper them in diagnosis and in healing for the maintenance of life. ¹⁵He who sins before his Maker, let him fall into the hands of the physician. ¹⁶My son, let your tears fall over the dead, and as one who suffers grievously, begin lamentation. Wind up his body with due honor. Don’t neglect his burial. ¹⁷Make bitter weeping and make passionate wailing. Let your mourning be according to his merit, for one day or two, lest you be spoken evil of; and so be comforted for your sorrow. ¹⁸For from sorrow comes death. Sorrow of heart saps one’s strength. ¹⁹In calamity, sorrow also remains. A poor man’s life is grievous to the heart. ²⁰Don’t give your heart to sorrow. Put it away, remembering the end. ²¹Don’t forget it, for there is no returning again. You do him no good, and you would harm yourself. ²²Remember his end, for so also will yours be: yesterday for him, and today for you. ²³When the dead is at rest, let his remembrance rest. Be comforted for him when his spirit departs from him. ²⁴The wisdom of the scribe comes by the opportunity of leisure. He who has little business can become wise. ²⁵How could he become wise who holds the plow, who glories in the shaft of the goad, who drives oxen and is occupied in their labors, and who mostly talks about bulls? ²⁶He will set his heart upon turning his furrows. His lack of sleep is to give his heifers their fodder. ²⁷So is every craftsman and master artisan who passes his time by night as by day, those who cut engravings of signets. His diligence is to make great variety. He sets his heart to preserve likeness in his portraiture, and is careful to finish his work. ²⁸So too is the smith sitting by the anvil and considering the unwrought iron. The smoke of the fire will waste his flesh. He toils in the heat of the furnace. The noise of the hammer deafens his ear. His eyes are upon the pattern of the object. He will set his heart upon perfecting his works. He will be careful to adorn them perfectly. ²⁹So is the potter sitting at his work and turning the wheel around with his feet, who is always anxiously set at his work. He produces his handiwork in quantity. ³⁰He will fashion the clay with his arm and will bend its strength in front of his feet. He will apply his heart to finish the glazing. He will be careful to clean the kiln. ³¹All these put their trust in their hands. Each becomes skillful in his own work. ³²Without these no city would be inhabited. Men wouldn’t reside as foreigners or walk up and down there. ³³They won’t be sought for in the council of the people. They won’t mount on high in the assembly. They won’t sit on the seat of the judge. They won’t understand the covenant of judgment. Neither will they declare instruction and judgment. They won’t be found where parables are. ³⁴But they will maintain the fabric of the age. Their prayer is in the handiwork of their craft.