Honoring Physicians

¹Honor physicians for their services,

for the Lord has created them.

²Their skill with healing comes from the Most High,

and they are rewarded by kings.

³The skill of physicians makes them distinguished,

and they are admired by the great.

⁴The Lord has created medicines from the earth,

and the sensible will not despise them.

⁵Wasn’t bitter water made sweet by a tree

so that its power might be known?

⁶The Lord has given skill to people

so that he might be honored through his marvelous works.

⁷By these works the physician cures and removes pain,

and from them the pharmacist makes medicine.

⁸There is no end to God’s works,

and he spreads health all over the earth.

⁹My child, when you are sick, do not wait;

pray to the Lord, and he will heal you.

¹⁰Renounce your errors, amend your ways,

and cleanse your heart from all sin.

¹¹Offer a sweet-smelling sacrifice and a memorial of fine flour,

and pour oil on your offering—as much as you can afford.

¹²Then let the physician take his place, for the Lord created him.

Don’t let him leave you, for you need him.

¹³A time will come when you must commit yourself to physicians.

Then they will pray to the Lord,

¹⁴asking for success in diagnosis[#38:14 As in Hebrew; Greek reads in rest.]

and in healing so that your life will be saved.

¹⁵Those who sin against their Maker

will not listen to the physician.

Mourning for the Dead

¹⁶My child, shed tears for the dead

and lament for them to show your great sorrow.

Prepare the body with proper ceremony,

and provide for a decent burial.

¹⁷Weep bitterly and wail fervently;

make your mourning worthy of the deceased.

Mourn for at least one or two days to avoid criticism,

and then let yourself be comforted during your grief.

¹⁸For grief can lead to death,

and a heavy heart saps a person’s strength.

¹⁹When a person is buried, the time of mourning is over,

but a life of poverty continues to weigh down the heart.

²⁰Do not be consumed with grieving for others.

Drive grief from you, and think about your own approaching death.

²¹Do not forget that there is no returning from death.

Grieving does the dead no good and harms the one who grieves.

²²Remember this fate, for yours is the same;

yesterday it was for that person, and today it is for you.

²³When the dead are at rest, let the memory of them also end.

Take comfort that their spirit has departed.

The Worker Has Little Time for Wisdom

²⁴The scribe possesses wisdom because he possesses leisure time.

Only those who have few responsibilities can become wise.

²⁵How can a person become wise who directs the plow

or who glories in the goad,

who drives oxen or keeps busy with work

or whose conversation is always about bulls?

²⁶His mind is fixed on plowing furrows,

and his concerns are about giving his cows fodder.

²⁷It is the same for every craftsman and designer,

who labors night and day.

So also for those who cut engraved seals.

Each is diligent to make the image unique.

Their minds are fixed on making a lifelike image,

they are concerned about completing the task.

²⁸It is also the same for the blacksmith who sits by the anvil,

concentrating on his ironwork.

The heat from the fire melts his flesh

as he works with the heat of the furnace.

The noise of the hammer rings in his ears,

and he keeps his eyes on the pattern of the object.

His mind is fixed on finishing his work,

and he is concerned about giving it a perfect finish.

²⁹It is also the same for the potter, who sits at his work,

turning the wheel with his feet.

He always takes great care with his work

and makes many vessels.

³⁰He fashions the clay with his hands

and kneads it beneath his feet.

His mind is fixed on finishing the glazing,

and he is concerned about keeping the furnace clean.

³¹All these people rely on their hands,

and all are skilled in their own craft.

³²Without them a city could not be inhabited,

for people could not live or walk in it.

³³Yet they are not chosen for the council of the people

or hold high rank in the congregation.

They do not occupy the judge’s seat,

nor do they understand the laws of the courts.

They cannot explain moral or legal principles,

and they are not familiar with proverbs.

³⁴But they sustain the structure of society,

and their concern is for the practice of their craft.