Ecclesiasticus 36

Have mercy on us, Lord, God of all, and look at us.

1Have mercy upon us, O Lord God of all, and behold us:

NoteThis chapter opens with a long prayer for the nation, which interrupts the strings of proverbs on either side of it. The chapter and verse numbers of this book vary a good deal between manuscripts and printed Bibles, so these lines carry different numbers in some editions.

2Make all the nations that do not seek you fear you.

2And send thy fear upon all the nations that seek not after thee.

Note"Fear" in 1611 English covers dread as well as reverence, and the request is that the nations be made to feel God's terrifying power. "The nations" means the peoples outside Israel, what the King James elsewhere calls the Gentiles or the heathen. The King James here follows a fuller Greek text than some copies, which read simply "all the nations" without the clause about not seeking God.

3Raise your hand against the foreign nations, and let them see your power.

3Lift up thy hand against the strange nations, and let them see thy power.

Note"Strange" in the King James means foreign, belonging to another people. It carries no suggestion of odd or peculiar.

4You showed that you are holy through us while they watched. Now show how great you are through them while we watch.

4As thou wast sanctified in us before them: so be thou magnified among them before us.

Note"Sanctified" here means shown to be holy rather than made holy, and "before them" and "before us" mean in their sight and in our sight. The two halves mirror each other: God once displayed his holiness in Israel while the nations looked on, and the prayer asks that he now display his greatness in the nations while Israel looks on.

5Let them come to know you, as we have known you: that there is no God but you alone, O God.

5And let them know thee, as we have known thee, that there is no God but only thou, O God.

6Show new signs, and do other kinds of wonders. Make your hand and your right arm glorious, so that people will tell about the amazing things you do.

6Shew new signs, and make other strange wonders: glorify thy hand and thy right arm, that they may set forth thy wondrous works.

Note"Strange wonders" again means wonders of an unfamiliar kind. "Thy hand and thy right arm" is a standard Hebrew figure for power in action, the right arm being the strong one; the phrase runs all through the story of the exodus from Egypt.

7Stir up your anger, and pour out your fury. Take away the one who opposes us, and destroy the enemy.

7Raise up indignation, and pour out wrath: take away the adversary, and destroy the enemy.

8Make the time short, remember the covenant, and let them tell about your wonderful works.

8Sake the time short, remember the covenant, and let them declare thy wonderful works.

NoteThe King James line printed here begins "Sake the time short," a misprint for "Make the time short," which is what the sentence means: bring the appointed end forward. A covenant is a binding agreement with sworn terms; most Greek copies read "oath" here, meaning the promise God swore to Israel's ancestors.

9Let anyone who gets away be eaten up by raging fire, and let those who crush the people die.

9Let him that escapeth be consumed by the rage of the fire; and let them perish that oppress the people.

Note"Consumed" carries its older, stronger sense: burned up, destroyed completely.

10Break in pieces the heads of the rulers of the nations, the ones who say, "There is no one but us."

10Smite in sunder the heads of the rulers of the heathen, that say, There is none other but we.

Note"Smite in sunder" means strike apart, break to pieces. "The heathen" in the King James simply means the nations other than Israel; it is a word about nationality, not about personal belief or behavior.

11Gather all the tribes of Jacob together, and take them as your own, as you did at the beginning.

11Gather all the tribes of Jacob together, and inherit thou them, as from the beginning.

Note"The tribes of Jacob" are the twelve tribes descended from Jacob's sons, many of them scattered or lost by the writer's day, around 200 BC. "Inherit thou them" uses the language of property passing to an heir: take Israel as the portion that permanently belongs to you.

12Lord, have mercy on the people who are called by your name, and on Israel, whom you have named your firstborn.

12O Lord, have mercy upon the people that is called by thy name, and upon Israel, whom thou hast named thy firstborn.

NoteIn Israelite family law the firstborn son held a privileged position and received a double share of the inheritance. Calling Israel God's firstborn, as Exodus 4:22 does, claims that standing for the nation among the peoples.

13Be merciful to Jerusalem, your holy city, the place where you rest.

13O be merciful unto Jerusalem, thy holy city, the place of thy rest.

Note"The place of thy rest" is the temple in Jerusalem, spoken of as the house where God settles and stays, not a place where he sleeps.

14Fill Zion with your messages that words cannot describe, and fill your people with your glory.

14Fill Sion with thine unspeakable oracles, and thy people with thy glory:

Note"Sion" is the older English spelling of Zion, the hill in Jerusalem and, by extension, the city itself. "Oracles" are messages spoken by God through a prophet. "Unspeakable" in 1611 means beyond what words can express, not shocking or improper. Some Greek copies divide the line differently, giving "Fill Zion" and then a separate request that the oracles be exalted.

15Speak on behalf of those you have held as your own from the beginning, and raise up prophets who have carried your name.

15Give testimony unto those that thou hast possessed from the beginning, and raise up prophets that have been in thy name.

Note"Those that thou hast possessed from the beginning" renders a Greek phrase that other copies give as "your creatures from the beginning"; either way the sense is a people belonging to God from the start. The second half is also unsettled: the King James asks that new prophets be raised up, while other copies ask that the prophecies already spoken in God's name be carried out.

16Reward those who wait for you, and let your prophets be shown to be faithful.

16Reward them that wait for thee, and let thy prophets be found faithful.

NoteTo be "found faithful" is to turn out, in the event, to have been reliable. The line can mean either that the prophets are proved true or, as other Greek copies have it, that people come to trust them.

17Lord, hear the prayer of your servants, and bless them as Aaron blessed your people, so that everyone living on the earth may know that you are the Lord, the God who lasts forever.

17O Lord, hear the prayer of thy servants, according to the blessing of Aaron over thy people, that all they which dwell upon the earth may know that thou art the Lord, the eternal God.

Note"The blessing of Aaron" is the priestly blessing of Numbers 6:24 to 26, which Aaron and his descendants pronounced over the people: "The LORD blesse thee, and keepe thee." Aaron was Moses' brother and the first priest.

18The stomach will take in any kind of food, yet one food is better than another.

18The belly devoureth all meats, yet is one meat better than another.

Note"Meats" in the King James means food of any kind, not flesh in particular. This verse begins a run of short comparisons: the stomach will accept anything, yet taste can still tell one thing from another.

19The mouth tastes the different meats a hunter brings home. In the same way, a mind that understands can taste false words.

19As the palate tasteth divers kinds of venison: so doth an heart of understanding false speeches.

Note"Venison" in 1611 means the meat of any hunted animal, not deer alone, and "divers" means various. The verb "tasteth" governs both halves of the comparison: as the palate sorts one game meat from another, so a discerning mind sorts out lying speech.

20A twisted mind brings sorrow, but a man with experience will pay him back.

20A froward heart causeth heaviness: but a man of experience will recompense him.

Note"Froward" means perverse or contrary, set against whatever is put to it; it has no connection with "forward." "Heaviness" means grief or low spirits. "Recompense him" means pay him back, and the Greek leaves open whether that means repaying him in kind or simply being able to handle him.

21A woman will accept any man, yet one daughter is better than another.

21A woman will receive every man, yet is one daughter better than another.

NoteThis line is built as a parallel to verse 18: as the stomach takes any food, a woman will take any husband, and yet the choices are not all equal. "Daughter" here stands for a young woman of marriageable age.

22A woman's beauty makes a man's face light up, and there is nothing a man loves more.

22The beauty of a woman cheereth the countenance, and a man loveth nothing better.

Note"Countenance" means the face, so "cheereth the countenance" means makes a man's face brighten.

23If her tongue speaks with kindness, gentleness, and comfort, then her husband is not like other men.

23If there be kindness, meekness, and comfort, in her tongue, then is not her husband like other men.

Note"Then is not her husband like other men" means he is better off than other men, not that he becomes a different sort of person.

24The man who gets a wife has the beginning of a property, a helper suited to him, and a post that holds him steady.

24He that getteth a wife beginneth a possession, a help like unto himself, and a pillar of rest.

Note"Beginneth a possession" follows a Greek text meaning he makes a start on property; other copies read that he gains his best possession. "A help like unto himself" echoes Genesis 2:18, "an helpe meet for him," that is, a helper matching him. "A pillar of rest" is a building image: an upright post that takes the weight and holds the structure steady.

25Where there is no fence, the property is stripped bare. And the man who has no wife will wander here and there, grieving.

25Where no hedge is, there the possession is spoiled: and he that hath no wife will wander up and down mourning.

NoteFields and vineyards were marked off and protected by hedges or low stone walls; with no boundary, whatever grew there was open to animals and to passing thieves. The proverb turns that picture on a man with no wife.

26Who would trust a thief who travels light and quick, and hops from city to city? In the same way, who would trust a man who has no house, and sleeps wherever the night catches him?

26Who will trust a thief well appointed, that skippeth from city to city? so who will believe a man that hath no house, and lodgeth wheresoever the night taketh him?

Note"Well appointed" in 1611 means well equipped and ready for the road, carrying nothing that would slow him down; the Greek word suggests a nimble, quick robber. In the second half the Greek says the man has no "nest," the ordinary word for a bird's, so the comparison is with a creature that has nowhere to return to at dark.