Sirach 49

¹The memory of Josiah is like a blending of incense

prepared by the art of the perfumer;

it is sweet as honey to every mouth,

and like music at a banquet of wine.

²He was led aright in converting the people,

and took away the abominations of iniquity.

³He set his heart upon the Lord;

in the days of wicked men he strengthened godliness.

⁴Except David and Hezekiah and Josiah

they all sinned greatly,

for they forsook the law of the Most High;

the kings of Judah came to an end;

⁵for they gave their power to others,

and their glory to a foreign nation,

⁶who set fire to the chosen city of the sanctuary,

and made her streets desolate,

according to the word of Jeremiah.

⁷For they had afflicted him;

yet he had been consecrated in the womb as prophet,

to pluck up and afflict and destroy,

and likewise to build and to plant.

⁸It was Ezekiel who saw the vision of glory

which God showed him above the chariot of the cherubim.

⁹For God remembered his enemies with storm,[#49.9 Gk he]

and did good to those who directed their ways aright.

¹⁰May the bones of the twelve prophets

revive from where they lie,

for they comforted the people of Jacob

and delivered them with confident hope.

¹¹How shall we magnify Zerubbabel?

He was like a signet on the right hand,

¹²and so was Jeshua the son of Jozadak;

in their days they built the house

and raised a temple holy to the Lord,

prepared for everlasting glory.

¹³The memory of Nehemiah also is lasting;

he raised for us the walls that had fallen,

and set up the gates and bars

and rebuilt our ruined houses.

¹⁴No one like Enoch has been created on earth,

for he was taken up from the earth.

¹⁵And no man like Joseph has been born,[#49.15 Heb Syr: Greek adds the leader of his brothers, the support of the people]

and his bones are cared for.

¹⁶Shem and Seth were honored among men,

and Adam above every living being in the creation.