---
title: "Sirach 7 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/sirach/7/
description: "Religious and moral duties. Sirach 7 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Sirach 7

Sirach 7 is chapter 7 of 51 in the Book of Sirach. Here are all 40 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> Religious and moral duties.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Sirach 7 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Do not choose to do evil, and evil will not take hold of you.
2. Withdraw from the iniquitous, and evil will withdraw from you.
3. Son, do not sow evil in the furrows of injustice, and you will not reap them sevenfold.
4. Do not seek a role of leadership from the Lord, and do not seek a seat of honor from the king.
5. You should not justify yourself before God, for he is the Knower of hearts. And by no means should you wish to seem wise before the king.
6. Do not seek to become a judge, unless you have sufficient strength to shatter iniquities. Otherwise, you might fear the face of the powerful, and so establish a scandal within your integrity.
7. You should not sin against the multitude of a city, nor should you cast yourself against the people.
8. And you should not bind two sins together. For even in one sin, you will not go unpunished.
9. Do not be cowardly in your soul.
10. You should not be unwilling to beg, nor to give alms.
11. You should not say: “God will look with favor on the multitude of my gifts, and when I make an offering to the most high God, he will accept my gift.”
12. You should not ridicule a man in bitterness of soul. For there is One who humbles and who exalts: the all-seeing God.
13. Do not love a lie against your brother, nor should you act the same toward your friend.
14. Do not be willing to devise a lie of any kind. For the practice of lying is not good.
15. Do not choose to be verbose among a multitude of elders, and you should not repeat the words of your prayers.
16. You should not hate laborious works, nor the rustic life created by the Most High.
17. You should not consider yourself to be among the multitude of the undisciplined.
18. Remember wrath. For it will not be delayed.
19. Humble your spirit greatly. For the retribution against the flesh of the impious is with fire and worms.
20. Do not betray your friend for the sake of money, and you should not spurn your dearest brother for the sake of gold.
21. Do not choose to depart from a good and understanding wife, whom you have been allotted in the fear of the Lord. For the grace of her modesty is above gold.
22. You should not harm the servant whose works are honest, nor the hired hand who entrusts his life to you.
23. Let an understanding servant be loved by you like your own soul. You should not cheat him out of freedom, nor abandon him to destitution.
24. Are cattle yours? Tend to them. And if they are useful, let them remain with you.
25. Are sons yours? Instruct them, and bow them down from their childhood.
26. Are daughters yours? Watch over their bodies. And you should not display a light-hearted attitude toward them.
27. Give your daughter in marriage, and give her to an understanding man, and you will be doing a great work.
28. If a wife in accord with your soul is yours, you should not reject her. But do not entrust yourself to her who is hateful.
29. With your whole heart, honor your father. And you should not forget the complaints of your mother.
30. Remember that you would not have been born except through them. And so, give back to them as they also have done for you.
31. With all your soul, fear the Lord, and consider his priests to be holy.
32. With all your strength, love him who made you, and you should not abandon his ministers.
33. Honor God from your whole soul, and confer honor on the priests, and continue to purify yourself with your strength.
34. Give them their portion, just as it has been commanded of you, from the first-fruits and from the purifications. And for your ignorant offenses, purify yourself with a smaller offering.
35. You should offer to the Lord the gift of your strength, and the sacrifice of sanctification, and the first-fruits of what is holy.
36. And reach out your hand to the poor, so that your atonement and your blessing may be perfected.
37. A gift has grace in the sight of all the living, but you should not prohibit grace for the dead.
38. You should not fail to console those who are weeping, nor to walk with those who are mourning.
39. Do not let yourself be slow to visit the sick. For in this way, you will be confirmed in love.
40. In all your works, remember your very end, and so you will not sin, unto eternity.

## Sirach 7 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Noli facere mala, et non te apprehendent:
2. discede ab iniquo, et deficient mala abs te.
3. Fili, non semines mala in sulcis injustitiæ, et non metes ea in septuplum.
4. Noli quærere a Domino ducatum, neque a rege cathedram honoris.
5. Non te justifices ante Deum, quoniam agnitor cordis ipse est: et penes regem noli velle videri sapiens.
6. Noli quærere fieri judex, nisi valeas virtute irrumpere iniquitates: ne forte extimescas faciem potentis, et ponas scandalum in æquitate tua.
7. Non pecces in multitudinem civitatis, nec te immittas in populum:
8. neque alliges duplicia peccata, nec enim in uno eris immunis.
9. Noli esse pusillanimis in animo tuo:
10. exorare et facere eleemosynam ne despicias.
11. Ne dicas: In multitudine munerum meorum respiciet Deus, et offerente me Deo altissimo, munera mea suscipiet.
12. Non irrideas hominem in amaritudine animæ: est enim qui humiliat et exaltat circumspector Deus.
13. Noli amare mendacium adversus fratrem tuum, neque in amicum similiter facias.
14. Noli velle mentiri omne mendacium: assiduitas enim illius non est bona.
15. Noli verbosus esse in multitudine presbyterorum, et non iteres verbum in oratione tua.
16. Non oderis laboriosa opera, et rusticationem creatam ab Altissimo.
17. Non te reputes in multitudine indisciplinatorum.
18. Memento iræ, quoniam non tardabit.
19. Humilia valde spiritum tuum, quoniam vindicta carnis impii ignis et vermis.
20. Noli prævaricari in amicum pecuniam differentem, neque fratrem carissimum auro spreveris.
21. Noli discedere a muliere sensata et bona, quam sortitus es in timore Domini: gratia enim verecundiæ illius super aurum.
22. Non lædas servum in veritate operantem, neque mercenarium dantem animam suam.
23. Servus sensatus sit tibi dilectus quasi anima tua: non defraudes illum libertate, neque inopem derelinquas illum.
24. Pecora tibi sunt, attende illis: et si sunt utilia, perseverent apud te.
25. Filii tibi sunt? erudi illos, et curva illos a pueritia illorum.
26. Filiæ tibi sunt? serva corpus illarum, et non ostendas hilarem faciem tuam ad illas.
27. Trade filiam, et grande opus feceris: et homini sensato da illam.
28. Mulier si est tibi secundum animam tuam, non projicias illam: et odibili non credas te. In toto corde tuo
29. honora patrem tuum, et gemitus matris tuæ ne obliviscaris:
30. memento quoniam nisi per illos natus non fuisses: et retribue illis, quomodo et illi tibi.
31. In tota anima tua time Dominum, et sacerdotes illius sanctifica.
32. In omni virtute tua dilige eum qui te fecit, et ministros ejus ne derelinquas.
33. Honora Deum ex tota anima tua, et honorifica sacerdotes, et propurga te cum brachiis.
34. Da illis partem, sicut mandatum est tibi, primitiarum et purgationis, et de negligentia tua purga te cum paucis.
35. Datum brachiorum tuorum, et sacrificium sanctificationis offeres Domino, et initia sanctorum.
36. Et pauperi porrige manum tuam, ut perficiatur propitiatio et benedictio tua.
37. Gratia dati in conspectu omnis viventis, et mortuo non prohibeas gratiam.
38. Non desis plorantibus in consolatione, et cum lugentibus ambula.
39. Non te pigeat visitare infirmum: ex his enim in dilectione firmaberis.
40. In omnibus operibus tuis memorare novissima tua, et in æternum non peccabis.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 2215: The Duties of Family Members ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## The saints

- “Keep death daily before your eyes.” — St. Benedict of Nursia, Rule of St. Benedict, ch. 4, c. 530 (On this theme: verse 36)

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 15: Make not much babbling by repetition of words: but aim more at fervour of heart.
- Verse 33: That is, with all thy power: or else by arms (brachiis) are here signified the right shoulders of the victims, which by the law fell to the priests. See ver. 35.
- Verse 37: That is, withhold not from them the benefit of alms, prayers, and sacrifices. Such was the doctrine and practice of the church of God even in the time of the Old Testament. And the same has always been continued from the days of the apostles in the church of the New Testament.

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