Sirach 20:17

17 How many will ridicule them, and how often?

Sirach 20:17 In-Context

15 They will give a little and reproach a lot, and they will open their mouths like a town crier. Today they will lend and tomorrow ask for it back; such people are hateful.

16 Fools say, "I don't have a friend, and there's no gratitude for my good deeds." Those who eat the bread of such people have mean tongues.

17 How many will ridicule them, and how often?

18 A slip on the pavement is preferable to a slip of the tongue; so the downfall of evil people will come quickly.

19 A disagreeable person, an untimely story— it will always be in the mouth of the uneducated.

Footnotes

• [a] LXXb adds They haven’t received what they have with real feeling, and what they don’t have is similarly indifferent to them.