Sirach 10:6-18

On pride

6 Don't become angry with your neighbor over every wrong, and don't do anything that offers a flagrant insult.
7 Arrogance is hateful to God and people, and injustice is wrong to both.
8 Sovereignty passes from nation to nation because of injustice, pride, and money.
9 How can dust and ashes be arrogant? Even when they are alive, human bodies are decaying.
10 A long illness mocks a doctor; today's king will die tomorrow.
11 When people are dead, they inherit maggots, vermin, and worms.
12 Human arrogance begins when people rebel against the Lord, and their hearts rebel against the one who made them.
13 The beginning of arrogance is sin, and those who cling to it will pour out blasphemy. For this reason the Lord brings calamities upon them, and he ruins them completely.
14 The Lord destroyed the thrones of rulers, and he raised up the gentle in their place.
15 The Lord plucked up the roots of nations, and he planted the humble in their place.
16 The Lord ruined the lands of the nations, and he leveled them to their very foundations.
17 He removed some people and destroyed them, and he erased their memory from the earth.
18 Humans were not created to be arrogant, nor were those born of women made to indulge in anger.

Footnotes 3

  • [a]. LXXb adds For there is nothing more lawless than love of money, because such people put their own souls up for sale.
  • [b]. Heb; LXX I threw off its entrails.
  • [c]. LXX beasts
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