### Douay Rheims Bible

Sirach 23

## The Book of Sirach (or Ecclesiasticus)

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| # Chapter 24
#### 1 | Wisdom shall praise her own self, and shall be honoured in God, and shall glory in the midst of her people,
#### 2 | And shall open her mouth in the churches of the most High, and shall glorify herself in the sight of his power,
#### 3 | And in the midst of her own people she shall be exalted, and shall be ad- mired in the holy assembly.
#### 4 | And in the multitude of the elect she shall have praise, and among the blessed she shall be blessed, saying:
#### 5 | I came out of the mouth of the most High, the firstborn before all creatures:
#### 6 | I made that in the heavens there should rise light that never faileth, and as a cloud I covered all the earth:
#### 7 | I dwelt in the highest places, and my throne is in a pillar of a cloud.
#### 8 | I alone have compassed the circuit of heaven, and have penetrated into the bottom of the deep, and have walked in the waves of the sea,
#### 9 | And have stood in all the earth: and in every people,
#### 10 | And in every nation I have had the chief rule:
#### 11 | And by my power I have trodden under my feet the hearts of all the high and low: and in all these I sought rest, and I shall abide in the inheritance of the Lord.
#### 12 | Then the creator of all things commanded, and said to me: and he that made me, rested in my tabernacle,
#### 13 | And he said to me: Let thy dwelling be in Jacob, and thy inheritance in Israel, and take root in my elect.
#### 14 | From the beginning, and before the world, was I created, and unto the world to come I shall not cease to be, and in the holy dwelling place I have ministered before him.
#### 15 | And so was I established in Sion, and in the holy city likewise I rested, and my power was in Jerusalem.
#### 16 | And I took root in an honourable people, and in the portion of mg God his inheritance, and my abode is in the full assembly of saints.
#### 17 | I was exalted like a cedar in Libanus, and as a cypress tree on mount Sion.
#### 18 | I was exalted like a palm tree in Cades, and as a rose plant in Jericho:
#### 19 | As a fair olive tree in the plains, and as a plane tree by the water in the streets, was I exalted.
#### 20 | I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon. and aromatical balm: I yielded a sweet odour like the best myrrh:
#### 21 | And I perfumed my dwelling as storax, and galbanum, and onyx, and aloes, and as the frankincense not cut, and my odour is as the purest balm.
#### 22 | I have stretched out my branches as the turpentine tree, and my branches are of honour and grace.
#### 23 | As the vine I have brought forth a pleasant odour: and my flowers are the fruit of honour and riches.
#### 24 | I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope.
#### 25 | In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue.
#### 26 | Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits.
#### 27 | For my spirit is sweet above honey, and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb.
#### 28 | My memory is unto everlasting generations.
#### 29 | They that eat me, shall yet hunger: and they that drink me, shall yet thirst.
#### 30 | He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin.
#### 31 | They that explain me shall have life everlasting.
#### 32 | All these things are the book of life, and the covenant of the most High, and the knowledge of truth.
#### 33 | Moses commanded a law in the precepts of justices, and an inheritance to the house of Jacob, and the promises to Israel.
#### 34 | He appointed to David his servant to raise up of him a most mighty king, and sitting on the throne of glory for ever.
#### 35 | Who filleth up wisdom as the Phison, and as the Tigris in the days of the new fruits.
#### 36 | Who maketh understanding to abound as the Euphrates, who multiplieth it as the Jordan in the time of harvest.
#### 37 | Who sendeth knowledge as the light, and riseth up as Gehon in the time of the vintage.
#### 38 | Who first hath perfect knowledge of her, and a weaker shall not search her out.
#### 39 | For her thoughts are more vast than the sea, and her counsels more deep than the great ocean.
#### 40 | I, wisdom, have poured out rivers.
#### 41 | I, like a brook out of a river of a mighty water; I, like a channel of a river. and like an aqueduct, came out of paradise.
#### 42 | I said: I will water my garden of plants, and I will water abundantly the fruits of my meadow.
#### 43 | And behold my brook became a great river, and my river came near to a sea:
#### 44 | For I make doctrine to shine forth to all as the morning light, and I will declare it afar off.
#### 45 | I will penetrate to all the lower parts of the earth, and will behold all that sleep, and will enlighten all that hope in the Lord.
#### 46 | I will yet pour out doctrine as prophecy, and will leave it to them that seek wisdom, and will not cease to instruct their offspring even to the holy age.
#### 47 | See ye that I have not laboured for myself only, but for all that seek out the truth.

Sirach 25

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