---
title: "Sirach 42 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/sirach/42/
description: "Of what things we ought not to be ashamed. Cautions with regard to women. The… Sirach 42 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Sirach 42

Sirach 42 is chapter 42 of 51 in the Book of Sirach. Here are all 26 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> Of what things we ought not to be ashamed. Cautions with regard to women. The works and greatness of God.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Sirach 42 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. You should not repeat a claim heard from the revealing of a hidden word. And then, truly, you will be without shame, and you will find favor in the sight of all men. You should not accept the reputation of someone, so that you would sin, nor should you be confounded in any of the following things:
2. in the law of the Most High and his covenant, or by giving a judgment to justify the impious;
3. in a word among companions and fellow travelers, or by distributing the inheritance of friends;
4. in the fairness of scales and weights, or in acquiring much or little;
5. by the corruption of buying and negotiating, or in the ample discipline of children, or in causing the side of a wicked servant to bleed.
6. A seal is good over a wicked wife.
7. Where there are many hands, seal and deliver all things by number and weight; and truly, give and receive everything in writing.
8. You should not have shame in correcting the senseless, the foolish, and those youths who would judge their elders. And so shall you be well-instructed in all things and well-approved in the sight of all the living.
9. The vigilance of a father for his daughter is hidden, and his concern for her takes away his sleep. For perhaps, in her adolescence, she might be brought into adulthood. Or when she lives with her husband, she might become hateful.
10. In her virginity, she might be defiled, and then she may be found to be pregnant in her father’s house. Or perhaps, when she lives with her husband, she might stray, or at least become barren.
11. Keep a close watch over a self-indulgent daughter. Otherwise, at some time, she might bring you into disgrace before your enemies, and into disrepute in the city, and into reproach among the people, and so she may confound you before the multitude of the people.
12. She should not choose to gaze upon the beauty of every man, and she should not choose to spend her time in the midst of married women.
13. For a moth goes forth from garments, and iniquity over a man goes forth from a woman.
14. Yet iniquity over a man is better for her than if a married woman, seeking to benefit her, instead leads her into confusion and disgrace.
15. And now, I will remember the works of the Lord, and I will announce what I have seen. The words of the Lord are in his works.
16. The sun illuminates and considers all things, and its work shows the fullness of the glory of the Lord.
17. Has not the Lord caused the holy ones to describe all his miracles, which the all-powerful Lord has firmly established in his glory?
18. He has examined the abyss and the hearts of men. And he has considered their astuteness.
19. For the Lord comprehends all knowledge, and he has gazed upon the signs of the times: announcing the things of the past, as well as the things of the future, and revealing the traces of hidden things.
20. No thought passes by him unnoticed, and no word can conceal itself from him.
21. He has adorned the magnificent works of his wisdom. He is before eternity and even unto eternity. And nothing can be added,
22. and nothing can be taken away. And he has no need of any counselor.
23. O how desirable are all his works! And all that we consider is but a spark.
24. All these works exist, and they remain in the present age, and they all obey him in every purpose.
25. All things are two-fold, one facing another, and he has not made anything to be lacking.
26. He has confirmed each thing as good. And who would tire of beholding his glory?

## Sirach 42 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Non duplices sermonem auditus de revelatione sermonis absconditi: et eris vere sine confusione, et invenies gratiam in conspectu omnium hominum. Ne pro his omnibus confundaris, et ne accipias personam ut delinquas:
2. de lege Altissimi, et testamento, et de judicio justificare impium,
3. de verbo sociorum et viatorum, et de datione hæreditatis amicorum,
4. de æqualitate stateræ et ponderum, de acquisitione multorum et paucorum,
5. de corruptione emptionis et negotiatorum, et de multa disciplina filiorum, et servo pessimo latus sanguinare.
6. Super mulierem nequam bonum est signum.
7. Ubi manus multæ sunt, claude: et quodcumque trades, numera et appende: datum vero et acceptum omne describe.
8. De disciplina insensati et fatui, et de senioribus qui judicantur ab adolescentibus: et eris eruditus in omnibus, et probabilis in conspectu omnium vivorum.
9. Filia patris abscondita est vigilia, et sollicitudo ejus aufert somnum: ne forte in adolescentia sua adulta efficiatur, et cum viro commorata odibilis fiat:
10. nequando polluatur in virginitate sua, et in paternis suis gravida inveniatur: ne forte cum viro commorata transgrediatur, aut certe sterilis efficiatur.
11. Super filiam luxuriosam confirma custodiam, nequando faciat te in opprobrium venire inimicis, a detractione in civitate, et objectione plebis, et confundat te in multitudine populi.
12. Omni homini noli intendere in specie, et in medio mulierum noli commorari:
13. de vestimentis enim procedit tinea, et a muliere iniquitas viri.
14. Melior est enim iniquitas viri quam mulier benefaciens, et mulier confundens in opprobrium.
15. Memor ero igitur operum Domini, et quæ vidi annuntiabo. In sermonibus Domini opera ejus.
16. Sol illuminans per omnia respexit, et gloria Domini plenum est opus ejus.
17. Nonne Dominus fecit sanctos enarrare omnia mirabilia sua, quæ confirmavit Dominus omnipotens stabiliri in gloria sua?
18. Abyssum et cor hominum investigavit, et in astutia eorum excogitavit.
19. Cognovit enim Dominus omnem scientiam, et inspexit in signum ævi, annuntians quæ præterierunt et quæ superventura sunt, revelans vestigia occultorum.
20. Non præterit illum omnis cogitatus, et non abscondit se ab eo ullus sermo.
21. Magnalia sapientiæ suæ decoravit, qui est ante sæculum et usque in sæculum: neque adjectum est,
22. neque minuitur, et non eget alicujus consilio.
23. Quam desiderabilia omnia opera ejus! et tamquam scintilla quæ est considerare!
24. Omnia hæc vivunt, et manent in sæculum, et in omni necessitate omnia obaudiunt ei.
25. Omnia duplicia, unum contra unum, et non fecit quidquam deesse.
26. Uniuscujusque confirmavit bona: et quis satiabitur videns gloriam ejus?

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 14: That is, there is, commonly speaking, less danger to be apprehended to the soul from the churlishness, or injuries we receive from men, than from the flattering favours and familiarity of women.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Thu, May 27, 2027: Thursday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Sirach 42:15-25

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).