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1Honor physicians for their services,[#v 12]
for the Lord created them,
2for their gift of healing comes from the Most High,
and they are rewarded by the king.
3The skill of physicians makes them distinguished,
and in the presence of the great they are admired.
4The Lord created medicines out of the earth,[#2 Kings 20.7; Ezek 47.12]
and the sensible will not despise them.
5Was not water made sweet with a tree[#Ex 15.25; 2 Esd 1.23]
in order that its power might be known?
6And he gave skill to human beings
that he might be glorified in his marvelous works.
7By them the physician heals and takes away pain;[#Jer 8.22; 46.11; 51.8; #38.7 Heb: Gk he]
8the pharmacist makes a mixture from them.
God’s works will never be finished,
and from him health spreads over all the earth.
9My child, when you are ill, do not delay,[#Isa 38.2]
but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you.
10Give up your faults and direct your hands rightly,[#Ps 51.10; 73.13; Jn 5.14]
and cleanse your heart from all sin.
11Offer a sweet-smelling sacrifice and a memorial portion of choice flour,[#Lev 2.1; Sir 35.3, 8]
and pour oil on your offering, as much as you can afford.
12Then give physicians their place, for the Lord created them;[#v 1]
do not let them leave you, for you need them.
13There may come a time when recovery lies in the hands of physicians,[#38.13 Gk in their hands]
14for they, too, pray to the Lord
that he grant them success in diagnosis
and in healing, for the sake of preserving life.
15Those who sin against their Maker[#1 Cor 11.30]
will be defiant toward the physician.
16My child, let your tears fall for the dead,[#Sir 22.11]
and as one in great pain begin the lament.
Lay out the body according to custom,
and do not neglect the burial.
17Let your weeping be bitter and your wailing fervent;[#Gen 50.10; Acts 8.2]
make your mourning worthy of the departed,
for one day or two, to avoid criticism;
then be comforted for your grief.
18For grief may result in death,[#Prov 15.13; Sir 30.23; 2 Cor 7.10]
and a sorrowful heart saps one’s strength.
19In calamity, grief continues,
but the life of the poor is a curse to the heart.
20Do not give your heart to grief;[#Sir 7.36]
drive it away and remember your own end.
21Do not forget, there is no coming back;[#2 Sam 12.23; Job 7.9]
you do the dead no good, and you injure yourself.
22Remember his fate, for yours is like it;[#Gen 3.19; #38.22 Heb: Gk my]
yesterday it was his, and today it is yours.
23When the dead are at rest, let their remembrance rest, too,[#2 Sam 12.20–23]
and be comforted for them when their spirits have departed.
24The wisdom of the scribe depends on the opportunity of leisure;[#1 Cor 1.20]
only the one who has little business can become wise.
25How can one become wise who handles the plow
and who glories in the shaft of a goad,
who drives oxen and is occupied with their work,
and whose talk is about the offspring of bulls?
26He sets his heart on plowing furrows,
and he loses sleep over fodder for the heifers.
27So it is with every artisan and master artisan[#Wis 14.19]
who labors by night as well as by day;
those who carve the signets of seals—
each is diligent in making a great variety;
they set their heart on painting a lifelike image,
and they lose sleep in order to finish their work.
28So it is with the smith sitting by the anvil,[#Isa 44.12]
intent on his ironwork;
the breath of the fire melts his flesh,
and he struggles with the heat of the furnace;
the sound of the hammer deafens his ears,
and his eyes are on the pattern of the object.
He sets his heart on finishing his handiwork,
and he loses sleep to complete its decoration.
29So it is with the potter sitting at his work[#Wis 15.7]
and turning the wheel with his feet;
he always lies down anxious about his work,
and his every work is taken into account.
30He molds the clay with his arm
and makes it pliable with his feet;
he sets his heart to finish the glazing,
and he takes care in firing the kiln.
31All these rely on their hands,
and all are skillful in their own work.
32Without them no city can be inhabited,
and wherever they live they will not go hungry.
Yet they are not sought out for the council of the people,
33nor do they attain eminence in the public assembly.
They do not sit in the judge’s seat,
nor do they understand the decisions of the courts;
they cannot expound discipline or judgment,
and they are not found among the rulers.
34But they maintain the fabric of the world,
and their concern is for the exercise of their trade.
How different the one who devotes himself
to the study of the law of the Most High!