---
title: "Sirach 17 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/sirach/17/
description: "The creation and favour of God to man. An exhortation to turn to God. Sirach 17 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Sirach 17

Sirach 17 is chapter 17 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.

> The creation and favour of God to man. An exhortation to turn to God.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Sirach 17 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. God created man from the earth, and he made him according to his own image.
2. And he returned him again to it, and he clothed him with virtue according to himself.
3. He gave him the number and time of his days, and he gave him authority over all the things that are upon the earth.
4. He placed the fear of him over all flesh, and he had dominion over wild beasts and flying things.
5. He created from him a helper, similar to himself. He gave them counsel, and language, and sight, and hearing, and a heart, in order to think. And he filled them with the discipline of understanding.
6. He created within them the knowledge of the spirit. He filled their heart with understanding, and he showed them both good and evil.
7. He set his eye upon their hearts, to reveal to them the greatness of his works,
8. so that they might highly praise the name of sanctification, and give glory to his wonders, so that they might declare the greatness of his works.
9. In addition, he gave them discipline and the law of life, as their inheritance.
10. He established an eternal covenant with them, and he revealed to them his justice and judgments.
11. And their eye saw the greatness of his honor, and their ears heard the honor of his voice, and he said to them: “Beware of all iniquity.”
12. And he commanded each one concerning his neighbor.
13. Their ways are always in his sight; they are not hidden from his eyes.
14. Over each and every people, he has appointed a ruler.
15. And Israel was made to be the manifest portion of God.
16. And in the sight of God, all their works are like the sun. And his eyes, without ceasing, inspect their ways.
17. The covenants are not hidden by their iniquity, and all their iniquities are in the sight of God.
18. The almsgiving of a man is like a seal upon him, which will guard the grace of a man like the pupil of an eye.
19. And afterward, it will rise up and repay them their reward, each one upon his head, and it will return to the hidden places of the earth.
20. Now, to the repentant, he has given the way of justice, and he has strengthened those lacking in patience, and he has fastened them to a destiny of truth.
21. Convert to the Lord, and relinquish your sins.
22. Make supplication before the face of the Lord, and diminish your offenses.
23. Return to the Lord, and turn away from your injustice, and have immense hatred for abomination.
24. And acknowledge the justices and judgments of God, and stand firm in the circumstances set before you and in prayer to the most high God.
25. Go to the side of the holy generation, to those who live in order to give praise to God.
26. You should not linger in the error of the impious; confess before death. Confession perishes from the dead as if it were nothing.
27. Confess while living; you should give thanks while you are still alive and healthy. And you should praise God and glory in his compassion.
28. How great is the mercy of the Lord, and his forgiveness, for those who convert to him!
29. For not all things can be in men, because the son of man is not immortal, and because they are pleased by the emptiness of malice.
30. What is brighter than the sun? Yet this will fail. Or what is more wicked than that which flesh and blood has invented? And this will be reproved.
31. He beholds the power of the heights of heaven. And all men are earth and ashes.

## Sirach 17 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Deus creavit de terra hominem, et secundum imaginem suam fecit illum:
2. et iterum convertit illum in ipsam, et secundum se vestivit illum virtute.
3. Numerum dierum et tempus dedit illi, et dedit illi potestatem eorum quæ sunt super terram.
4. Posuit timorem illius super omnem carnem, et dominatus est bestiarum et volatilium.
5. Creavit ex ipso adjutorium simile sibi: consilium, et linguam, et oculos, et aures, et cor dedit illis excogitandi, et disciplina intellectus replevit illos.
6. Creavit illis scientiam spiritus, sensu implevit cor illorum, et mala et bona ostendit illis.
7. Posuit oculum suum super corda illorum, ostendere illis magnalia operum suorum:
8. ut nomen sanctificationis collaudent, et gloriari in mirabilibus illius; ut magnalia enarrent operum ejus.
9. Addidit illis disciplinam, et legem vitæ hæreditavit illos.
10. Testamentum æternum constituit cum illis, et justitiam et judicia sua ostendit illis.
11. Et magnalia honoris ejus vidit oculus illorum, et honorem vocis audierunt aures illorum. Et dixit illis: Attendite ab omni iniquo.
12. Et mandavit illis unicuique de proximo suo.
13. Viæ illorum coram ipso sunt semper: non sunt absconsæ ab oculis ipsius.
14. In unamquamque gentem præposuit rectorem:
15. et pars Dei Israël facta est manifesta.
16. Et omnia opera illorum velut sol in conspectu Dei: et oculi ejus sine intermissione inspicientes in viis eorum.
17. Non sunt absconsa testamenta per iniquitatem illorum, et omnes iniquitates eorum in conspectu Dei.
18. Eleemosyna viri quasi signaculum cum ipso, et gratiam hominis quasi pupillam conservabit.
19. Et postea resurget, et retribuet illis retributionem, unicuique in caput ipsorum, et convertet in interiores partes terræ.
20. Pœnitentibus autem dedit viam justitiæ, et confirmavit deficientes sustinere, et destinavit illis sortem veritatis.
21. Convertere ad Dominum, et relinque peccata tua:
22. precare ante faciem Domini, et minue offendicula.
23. Revertere ad Dominum, et avertere ab injustitia tua, et nimis odito execrationem:
24. et cognosce justitias et judicia Dei, et sta in sorte propositionis, et orationis altissimi Dei.
25. In partes vade sæculi sancti, cum vivis et dantibus confessionem Deo.
26. Non demoreris in errore impiorum: ante mortem confitere: a mortuo, quasi nihil, perit confessio.
27. Confiteberis vivens, vivus et sanus confiteberis: et laudabis Deum, et gloriaberis in miserationibus illius.
28. Quam magna misericordia Domini, et propitiatio illius convertentibus ad se!
29. Nec enim omnia possunt esse in hominibus, quoniam non est immortalis filius hominis, et in vanitate malitiæ placuerunt.
30. Quid lucidius sole? et hic deficiet; aut quid nequius quam quod excogitavit caro et sanguis? et hoc arguetur.
31. Virtutem altitudinis cæli ipse conspicit: et omnes homines terra et cinis.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 2447: Love For the Poor ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 11: “Their eye saw” … Viz., when he gave the law on mount Sinai.
- Verse 22: Minue offendicula. That is, remove sins and the occasions of sins.
- Verse 25: “Go to the side” … Fly from the side of Satan and sin, and join with the holy ones, that follow God and godliness.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Sat, May 22, 2027: Saturday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Sirach 17:1-15
- Mon, May 24, 2027: Monday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Sirach 17:20-24

Citations as published in the USCCB liturgical calendar (principal Mass, first option).

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