Ecclesiasticus 12

When you plan to do good, know who you are doing it for. Then your kind acts will be thanked.

1When thou wilt do good know to whom thou doest it; so shalt thou be thanked for thy benefits.

NoteIn 1611 "benefits" meant the good turns you do for somebody, the favors you hand out, not advantages you receive. The verse is about your own giving, not about what you get.

2Do good to the man who honors God, and you will be paid back. If he does not pay you back, the Most High will.

2Do good to the godly man, and thou shalt find a recompence; and if not from him, yet from the most High.

Note"Godly" and "ungodly" translate a pair of Greek words (eusebes, asebes) that describe a person's stance toward God as shown in how he lives, one who gives God the reverence owed him and one who does not. They are not words about feelings. "The most High" is a standing title for God, Greek hypsistos, behind it the Hebrew Elyon; this book uses it constantly where other writers would say the Lord.

3No good can come to the man who is always busy doing evil, or to the man who gives nothing to the poor.

3There can no good come to him that is always occupied in evil, nor to him that giveth no alms.

Note"Alms" is the old English word for gifts of money or food to the poor. In the Judaism this writer belonged to, Jerusalem around 180 BC, such giving was a standing obligation rather than an optional kindness, and the Hebrew word for it overlaps with the word for righteousness.

4Give to the man who honors God, and do not help a sinner.

4Give to the godly man, and help not a sinner.

5Do good to the person who is low and humble, but do not give to the person who has no respect for God. Hold back your bread and do not give it to him. If you do, he may use it to get power over you, and you will get back twice as much evil as all the good you did for him.

5Do well unto him that is lowly, but give not to the ungodly: hold back thy bread, and give it not unto him, lest he overmaster thee thereby: for else thou shalt receive twice as much evil for all the good thou shalt have done unto him.

Note"Hold back thy bread" uses bread for food in general, and so for the basic support a person needs to live. "Lest he overmaster thee thereby" means: so that he does not use the very thing you gave him to get the upper hand over you.

6For the Most High hates sinners, and he will pay back those who have no respect for God. He is keeping them for the great day when they will be punished.

6For the most High hateth sinners, and will repay vengeance unto the ungodly, and keepeth them against the mighty day of their punishment.

Note"Repay vengeance" means pay back what is owed in punishment, settle the account, not fly into a rage. The closing clause about keeping them for the day of punishment is absent from many Greek manuscripts. Sirach survives in a shorter and a longer Greek form, and the King James follows the longer one, which is why this chapter carries lines that modern translations made from the shorter text leave out.

7Give to the good man, and do not help the sinner.

7Give unto the good, and help not the sinner.

NoteThis repeats verse 4 almost word for word. The repetition is deliberate: teachers in this tradition often closed a section by restating the line that opened it, as a way of marking where the unit ends.

8You cannot tell what a friend really is while things are going well, and an enemy cannot stay hidden when trouble comes.

8A friend cannot be known in prosperity: and an enemy cannot be hidden in adversity.

NoteThis does not mean you cannot recognize a friend while things go well. The Greek verb is about testing or proving something: a friend is never put to the test in good times, so his worth has not yet been shown.

9When a man does well, his enemies are upset. When trouble comes to him, even a friend walks away.

9In the prosperity of a man enemies will be grieved: but in his adversity even a friend will depart.

Note"Grieved" in 1611 covered being vexed, galled, put out. The enemies are not sorry for the man; they are irritated that he is doing well.

10Never trust your enemy. His wickedness is like the way copper corrodes.

10Never trust thine enemy: for like as iron rusteth, so is his wickedness.

NoteThe Greek says copper or bronze corrodes, not iron; the King James translators swapped in the metal familiar to their own readers. The Greek word for that corrosion, ios, also means venom, which is part of why snakes appear a few lines later.

11Even if he makes himself humble and walks bent low, watch him closely and be on your guard. You will be to him like someone who has wiped a mirror clean, and you will find that his corrosion has not been wiped away completely.

11Though he humble himself, and go crouching, yet take good heed and beware of him, and thou shalt be unto him as if thou hadst wiped a lookingglass, and thou shalt know that his rust hath not been altogether wiped away.

Note"Lookingglass" is the old word for a mirror. Mirrors then were sheets of polished bronze, not glass, and they tarnished constantly, so keeping one usable meant rubbing it again and again. The picture is genuinely obscure in the Greek and translators divide over it: either you should watch him as closely as a man inspecting a mirror he has just wiped, or your watching is itself the wiping, which reveals that the tarnish has not gone. "Go crouching" means walk stooped low, the posture of a man making a show of submission.

12Do not put him next to you. If you do, he may pull you down and stand in your place. Do not let him sit at your right hand, or he will try to take your seat. In the end you will remember my words, and they will sting you.

12Set him not by thee, lest, when he hath overthrown thee, he stand up in thy place; neither let him sit at thy right hand, lest he seek to take thy seat, and thou at the last remember my words, and be pricked therewith.

Note"Set him not by thee" means do not give him the seat next to yours. The place at a host's or a ruler's right hand was the position of highest honor, so the warning is about advancement as much as nearness. "Be pricked therewith" means stung or pierced by the words when you finally recall them. The "my" is the author of the book, a Jerusalem teacher called Jesus son of Sirach, who writes throughout as a master speaking to a pupil.

13Who will feel sorry for a charmer who is bitten by a snake, or for anyone who goes near wild animals?

13Who will pity a charmer that is bitten with a serpent, or any such as come nigh wild beasts?

NoteA "charmer" here is a snake charmer, a man whose trade was handling snakes and chanting over them. "Come nigh" simply means come near.

14It is the same with a person who goes to a sinner and gets mixed up with him in his sins. Who will feel sorry for him?

14So one that goeth to a sinner, and is defiled with him in his sins, who will pity?

Note"Defiled with him in his sins" borrows the vocabulary of ritual uncleanness, the kind a person caught by contact, as touching a corpse or a diseased person made someone unclean under the Law. The point of the word is contamination by association.

15For a while that person will stay with you, but if you start to fall, he will not stay.

15For a while he will abide with thee, but if thou begin to fall, he will not tarry.

NoteIt is not certain in the Greek whether "he" is the sinner you attached yourself to in the verse before, or the false friend described in the verses that follow. The sentence sits on the hinge between the two halves of the chapter and can be read either way.

16An enemy speaks sweet words with his lips, but in his heart he is planning how to throw you into a pit. He will weep with his eyes, but if he gets the chance, he will not have his fill of blood.

16An enemy speaketh sweetly with his lips, but in his heart he imagineth how to throw thee into a pit: he will weep with his eyes, but if he find opportunity, he will not be satisfied with blood.

Note"He will not be satisfied with blood" does not mean blood would content him. The sense is that he will not get his fill of it, that he will not stop short of it. The pit is the standard image of a covered trap dug for animals, and so of a concealed plot.

17If trouble comes on you, you will find him there ahead of you. He will act as if he is helping you, but he will be working underneath to bring you down.

17If adversity come upon thee, thou shalt find him there first; and though he pretend to help thee, yet shall he undermine thee.

Note"Undermine" was a literal word in 1611: to dig away the earth or the foundation under something so that it collapses. The Greek verb is closer to hooking a man's heel from behind to trip him.

18He will shake his head, and clap his hands, and whisper a great deal, and change the look on his face.

18He will shake his head, and clap his hands, and whisper much, and change his countenance.

NoteNone of these are friendly gestures. Shaking the head, clapping the hands, hissing or whispering, and pulling a face were all recognized signs of mockery and contempt in the ancient Near East, the standard behavior of onlookers at someone's ruin. The same cluster of gestures appears in Lamentations and the Psalms.