---
title: "Sirach 16 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/sirach/16/
description: "It is better to have none than many wicked children. Of the justice and mercy of… Sirach 16 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Sirach 16

Sirach 16 is chapter 16 of 51 in the Book of Sirach. Here are all 31 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> It is better to have none than many wicked children. Of the justice and mercy of God. His ways are unsearchable.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Sirach 16 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. You should not rejoice in impious children, if they are successful; nor should you take delight in them, if the fear of God is not in them.
2. You should not approve of their life, nor should you look with favor on their labors.
3. For one child who fears God is better than one thousand impious children.
4. And it is better to die without children, than to leave behind impious children.
5. By means of one person with understanding, a country will be inhabited. The tribe of the impious will become desolate.
6. Many such things my eyes have seen, and greater things than these my ear has heard.
7. In the synagogue of sinners, a fire will blaze forth; and amid an unbelieving people, wrath will flare up.
8. The giants of antiquity did not obtain pardon for their sins; they were destroyed by trusting in their own abilities.
9. And he did not spare the place of Lot’s sojourn, and he abhorred them because of the arrogance of their words.
10. He did not take pity on them, destroying an entire people, who even extolled themselves concerning their sins.
11. And this was so with six hundred thousand men, who were gathered together in the hardness of their hearts. And if even a single obstinate person had escaped unpunished, it would be a wonder.
12. For mercy and wrath are with him. He is powerful in forgiveness, and he pours forth wrath.
13. As is his mercy, so also is his correction; he judges a man according to his works.
14. The sinner, in his violations, will not escape; but the patience of the One who shows mercy will not be diminished.
15. Every mercy will make a place for each man, according to the merit of his works, and according to the understanding of his sojourn.
16. You should not say: “I am hidden from God,” or, “Who, from on high, will take note of me?”
17. or, “Among a great number of people, I will not be noticed. For what is my soul amid such an immense creation?”
18. Behold: the heavens, and the heaven of the heavens, the abyss, and the entire earth, and the things that are within these, will be shaken by his gaze,
19. together with mountains and hills, and the foundations of the earth. When God casts his gaze upon them, they will be struck with trembling.
20. And concerning all these things, the heart is without understanding; but every heart is understood by him.
21. And who will understand his ways, or the tempest, which no eye of man will see?
22. For many of his works are concealed. But who will announce the works of his justice? Or who will endure them? For the testament is far from some persons, and the examination of each thing is in its end.
23. Whoever diminishes the heart, thinks empty thoughts. For the imprudent and erring man thinks up foolishness.
24. Listen to me, son, and learn the discipline of understanding, and attend to my words in your heart.
25. And I will speak with equity about discipline, and I will strive to announce wisdom. So attend to my words in your heart, and I will speak with equity of spirit, about the virtues that God has set within his works from the beginning, and I will announce his knowledge in truth.
26. With the judgment of God, his works have been done from the beginning; and from their institution, he himself distinguished their parts and set their beginnings, in their kinds.
27. He has beautified their works unto eternity. They have neither hungered, nor labored, and they have not ceased from their works.
28. Neither will any one of them cause anguish to his neighbor, forever.
29. You should not be incredulous at his word.
30. Afterward, God looked with favor upon the earth, and he filled it with his goodness.
31. The soul of every living thing brought word from before his face, and their return again is to him.

## Sirach 16 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Ne jucunderis in filiis impiis, si multiplicentur: nec oblecteris super ipsos, si non est timor Dei in illis.
2. Non credas vitæ illorum, et ne respexeris in labores eorum.
3. Melior est enim unus timens Deum, quam mille filii impii:
4. et utile est mori sine filiis, quam relinquere filios impios.
5. Ab uno sensato inhabitabitur patria: tribus impiorum deseretur.
6. Multa talia vidit oculis meus, et fortiora horum audivit auris mea.
7. In synagoga peccantium exardebit ignis, et in gente incredibili exardescet ira.
8. Non exoraverunt pro peccatis suis antiqui gigantes, qui destructi sunt confidentes suæ virtuti.
9. Et non pepercit peregrinationi Lot, et execratus est eos præ superbia verbi illorum.
10. Non misertus est illis, gentem totam perdens, et extollentem se in peccatis suis.
11. Et sicut sexcenta millia peditum, qui congregati sunt in duritia cordis sui: et si unus fuisset cervicatus, mirum si fuisset immunis.
12. Misericordia enim et ira est cum illo: potens exoratio, et effundens iram.
13. Secundum misericordiam suam, sic correptio illius homines secundum opera sua judicat.
14. Non effugiet in rapina peccator, et non retardabit sufferentia misericordiam facientis.
15. Omnis misericordia faciet locum unicuique, secundum meritum operum suorum, et secundum intellectum peregrinationis ipsius.
16. Non dicas: A Deo abscondar: et ex summo, quis mei memorabitur?
17. in populo magno non agnoscar: quæ est enim anima mea in tam immensa creatura?
18. Ecce cælum et cæli cælorum, abyssus, et universa terra, et quæ in eis sunt, in conspectu illius commovebuntur.
19. Montes simul, et colles, et fundamenta terræ, cum conspexerit illa Deus, tremore concutientur.
20. Et in omnibus his insensatum est cor, et omne cor intelligitur ab illo.
21. Et vias illius quis intelligit, et procellam quam nec oculus videbit hominis?
22. Nam plurima illius opera sunt in absconsis: sed opera justitiæ ejus quis enuntiabit, aut quis sustinebit? longe enim est testamentum a quibusdam, et interrogatio omnium in consummatione est.
23. Qui minoratur corde cogitat inania, et vir imprudens et errans cogitat stulta.
24. Audi me, fili, et disce disciplinam sensus, et in verbis meis attende in corde tuo:
25. et dicam in æquitate disciplinam, et scrutabor enarrare sapientiam: et in verbis meis attende in corde tuo, et dico in æquitate spiritus virtutes quas posuit Deus in opera sua ab initio, et in veritate enuntio scientiam ejus.
26. In judicio Dei opera ejus ab initio, et ab institutione ipsorum distinxit partes illorum, et initia eorum in gentibus suis.
27. Ornavit in æternum opera illorum: nec esurierunt, nec laboraverunt, et non destiterunt ab operibus suis.
28. Unusquisque proximum sibi non angustiabit in æternum:
29. non sis incredibilis verbo illius.
30. Post hæc Deus in terram respexit, et implevit illam bonis suis:
31. anima omnis vitalis denuntiavit ante faciem ipsius, et in ipsam iterum reversio illorum.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 11: Viz., the children of Israel, whom he sentenced to die in the wilderness. Num. 14.
- Verse 31: Viz., the glory and power of God upon the earth.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).