A Prayer for God's People

1Have mercy upon us, O God36.1 Heb: Gk O Master, the God of all,

2and put all the nations in fear of you.

3Lift up your hand against foreign nations

and let them see your might.

4As you have used us to show your holiness to them,

so use them to show your glory to us.

5Then they will know,36.5 Heb: Gk And let them know you as we have known,

that there is no God but you, O Lord.

6Give new signs, and work other wonders;

7make your hand and right arm glorious.

8Rouse your anger and pour out your wrath;

9destroy the adversary and wipe out the enemy.

10Hasten the day, and remember the appointed time,36.10 Other ancient authorities read remember your oath

and let people recount your mighty deeds.

11Let survivors be consumed in the fiery wrath,

and may those who harm your people meet destruction.

12Crush the heads of hostile rulers

who say, ‘There is no one but ourselves.’

13Gather all the tribes of Jacob,36.13 Owing to a dislocation in the Greek Mss of Sirach, the verse numbers 14 and 15 are not used in chapter 36, though no text is missing.

16and give them their inheritance, as at the beginning.

17Have mercy, O Lord, on the people called by your name,

on Israel, whom you have named36.17 Other ancient authorities read you have likened to your firstborn,

18Have pity on the city of your sanctuary,36.18 Or on your holy city

Jerusalem, the place of your dwelling.36.18 Heb: Gk your rest

19Fill Zion with your majesty,36.19 Heb Syr: Gk the celebration of your wondrous deeds

and your temple36.19 Heb Syr: Gk Lat people with your glory.

20Bear witness to those whom you created in the beginning,

and fulfil the prophecies spoken in your name.

21Reward those who wait for you

and let your prophets be found trustworthy.

22Hear, O Lord, the prayer of your servants, according to your goodwill towards36.22 Heb and two Gk witnesses: Lat and most Gk witnesses read according to the blessing of Aaron for your people,

and all who are on the earth will know

that you are the Lord, the God of the ages.

Concerning Discrimination

23The stomach will take any food,

yet one food is better than another.

24As the palate tastes the kinds of game,

so an intelligent mind detects false words.

25A perverse mind will cause grief,

but a person with experience will pay him back.

26A woman will accept any man as a husband,

but one girl is preferable to another.

27A woman's beauty lights up a man's face,

and there is nothing he desires more.

28If kindness and humility mark her speech,

her husband is more fortunate than other men.

29He who acquires a wife gets his best possession,36.29 Heb: Gk enters upon a possession

a helper fit for him and a pillar of support.36.29 Heb: Gk rest

30Where there is no fence, the property will be plundered;

and where there is no wife, a man will become a fugitive and a wanderer.36.30 Heb: Gk wander about and sigh

31For who will trust a nimble robber

that skips from city to city?

So who will trust a man that has no nest,

but lodges wherever night overtakes him?