Sirach 17

1 The Lord created humanity from the earth and turned them back into it again. 2 He gave them a fixed number of days and a limited time, and he gave them authority over the things on the earth. 3 He clothed them with strength like his own and made them according to his image. 4 He placed the fear of humanity on all flesh and gave them dominion over wild animals and birds. 5 They received the use of the Lord’s five faculties; as a sixth he gave them understanding, and as a seventh, speech to interpret their thoughts. [a]

6 He gave them counsel, a tongue, eyes, ears, and a heart with which to think. 7 He filled them with knowledgeable understanding and showed them good and evil. 8 He placed his eye on their hearts to show them the greatness of his works. 9 He enabled them to glory in his marvelous acts forever so that they might recount his works with understanding. [b] 10 They will praise his holy name and recount the greatness of his works.

11 He added knowledge for them and gave them the law of life as an inheritance. 12 He established an everlasting covenant with them and showed them his judgments. 13 Their eyes saw the greatness of his glory, and their ears heard the glory of his voice. 14 He told them, “Guard yourselves from every wrongdoing.” Then he gave each person a command concerning his neighbor. 15 Their ways are always before him and cannot be hidden from his eyes.

16 Every person has been inclined to evil from youth; they could not replace their stone hearts with hearts of flesh. [c] 17 He appointed a leader over every nation, but Israel is the Lord’s share. 18 He instructs Israel as his firstborn and does not abandon him, but gives him the light of his love. [d] 19 All their works are like the sun before him, and his eyes continually watch their ways. 20 Their wrongdoings are not hidden from him, and all their sins are before the Lord.

21 Yet the Lord is kind and knows what he has made; he neither left nor abandoned them but spared them. [e] 22 A person’s acts of mercy are like a seal kept with him, and the Lord guards a person’s favor like the pupil of an eye. 23 Afterward he will rise and repay them, returning their repayment on their own heads. 24 But he grants a return to those who turn back and comforts those who are losing endurance. 25 Turn back to the Lord and abandon your sins. Pray in his presence and reduce the things that make you stumble.

26 Return to the Most High, turn away from wrongdoing, and hate every detestable thing. 27 Who will praise the Most High in Hades in place of the living who give thanks? 28 Thanksgiving perishes from the dead as from someone who does not exist; the living person in sound health will praise the Lord. 29 How great are the Lord’s acts of mercy and his atonement for those who turn back to him! 30 Human beings cannot possess everything, because a son of man is not immortal.

31 What is brighter than the sun? Yet even it fails. Flesh and blood will devise evil. 32 He examines the forces in the height of heaven, while all human beings are earth and ashes.