---
title: "Sirach 36 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/sirach/36/
description: "A prayer for the church of God. Of a good heart, and a good wife. Sirach 36 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Sirach 36

Sirach 36 is chapter 36 of 51 in the Book of Sirach. Here are all 28 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> A prayer for the church of God. Of a good heart, and a good wife.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Sirach 36 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. O God of all, take pity on us, and look with favor on us, and show us the light of your compassion.
2. And send your fear upon the Gentiles, who have not sought you, so that they may acknowledge that there is no God except you, and so that they may declare your great deeds.
3. Lift up your hand over unbelieving nations, so that they may see your power.
4. For just as, in their sight, you have been sanctified in us, so also, in our sight, you will be magnified in them.
5. So may they know you, as we also have known you. For there is no God apart from you, O Lord.
6. Renew your signs, and work new wonders.
7. Glorify your hand and your right arm.
8. Stir up your fury, and pour out your wrath.
9. Take away our adversary, and afflict our enemy.
10. Hasten the time, and remember the end, so that they may declare your miracles.
11. Let those who escape be devoured by the wrath of fire. And let those who harass your people find perdition.
12. Crush the head of the leaders of the enemies, for they say: “There is no other beside us.”
13. Gather together all the tribes of Jacob, so that they may acknowledge that there is no God except you, and so that they may declare your great deeds. And you will inherit them, as from the beginning.
14. Take pity on your people, over whom your name has been invoked, and on Israel, whom you have treated as your firstborn.
15. Take pity on Jerusalem, the city of your sanctification, the city of your rest.
16. Fill Zion with your ineffable words, and fill your people with your glory.
17. Give testimony to those who have been your creations from the beginning, and lift up the prophecies which the former prophets spoke in your name.
18. Give a reward to those who endure for you, so that your prophets may be found to be faithful. And heed the prayers of your servants,
19. in accord with the blessing of Aaron over your people. And direct us in the way of justice, and let all who inhabit the earth know that you are God, the Beholder of all ages.
20. The belly can devour any food, yet one meal is better than another.
21. The palate tests the meat of wild animals, and the understanding heart tests false words.
22. A corrupt heart will cause grief, and a man of experience will resist it.
23. A woman can receive any male, yet one daughter is better than another.
24. The beauty of a wife cheers the face of her husband, and rises above his desire, above all the desires of man.
25. If she offers healing words, then she both comforts and shows mercy; and so her husband is not like other men.
26. He who holds to a good wife establishes a possession. She is a helper in agreement with him, and she is a pillar of rest.
27. Where there is no hedge, a possession will be trampled. And where there is no wife, he will mourn her absence.
28. Who will trust one who has no nest, and who conceals himself wherever his course may take him, like a well-equipped robber passing from city to city?

## Sirach 36 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Miserere nostri, Deus omnium, et respice nos, et ostende nobis lucem miserationum tuarum:
2. et immitte timorem tuum super gentes quæ non exquisierunt te, ut cognoscant quia non est deus nisi tu, et enarrent magnalia tua.
3. Alleva manum tuam super gentes alienas, ut videant potentiam tuam.
4. Sicut enim in conspectu eorum sanctificatus es in nobis, sic in conspectu nostro magnificaberis in eis:
5. ut cognoscant te, sicut et nos cognovimus quoniam non est deus præter te, Domine.
6. Innova signa, et immuta mirabilia.
7. Glorifica manum et brachium dextrum.
8. Excita furorem, et effunde iram.
9. Tolle adversarium, et afflige inimicum.
10. Festina tempus, et memento finis, ut enarrent mirabilia tua.
11. In ira flammæ devoretur qui salvatur: et qui pessimant plebem tuam inveniant perditionem.
12. Contere caput principum inimicorum, dicentium: Non est alius præter nos.
13. Congrega omnes tribus Jacob, ut cognoscant quia non est deus nisi tu, et enarrent magnalia tua, et hæreditabis eos sicut ab initio.
14. Miserere plebi tuæ, super quam invocatum est nomen tuum, et Israël quem coæquasti primogenito tuo.
15. Miserere civitati sanctificationis tuæ, Jerusalem, civitati requiei tuæ.
16. Reple Sion inenarrabilibus verbis tuis, et gloria tua populum tuum.
17. Da testimonium his qui ab initio creaturæ tuæ sunt, et suscita prædicationes quas locuti sunt in nomine tuo prophetæ priores.
18. Da mercedem sustinentibus te, ut prophetæ tui fideles inveniantur: et exaudi orationes servorum tuorum,
19. secundum benedictionem Aaron de populo tuo: et dirige nos in viam justitiæ, et sciant omnes qui habitant terram quia tu es Deus conspector sæculorum.
20. Omnem escam manducabit venter: et est cibus cibo melior.
21. Fauces contingunt cibum feræ, et cor sensatum verba mendacia.
22. Cor pravum dabit tristitiam, et homo peritus resistet illi.
23. Omnem masculum excipiet mulier: et est filia melior filia.
24. Species mulieris exhilarat faciem viri sui, et super omnem concupiscentiam hominis superducit desiderium.
25. Si est lingua curationis, est et mitigationis et misericordiæ: non est vir illius secundum filios hominum.
26. Qui possidet mulierem bonam inchoat possessionem: adjutorium secundum illum est, et columna ut requies.
27. Ubi non est sepes, diripietur possessio: et ubi non est mulier, ingemiscit egens.
28. Quis credit ei qui non habet nidum, et deflectens ubicumque obscuraverit, quasi succinctus latro exiliens de civitate in civitatem?

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 441: The Only Son of God ([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 23: That is, any man that her parents propose to her to marry, though she does not like him, but marries in obedience to her parents, who make the choice for her.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Wed, May 26, 2027: St. Philip Neri, Priest — First Reading, Sirach 36:1, 4-5a, 10-17

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).