Ben Sira 36:22-29

22 Hear, O Lord, the prayer of your servants, according to your goodwill toward your people, and all who are on the earth will know that you are the Lord, the God of the ages.
23 The stomach will take any food, yet one food is better than another.
24 As the palate tastes the kinds of game, so an intelligent mind detects false words.
25 A perverse mind will cause grief, but a person with experience will pay him back.
26 A woman will accept any man as a husband, but one girl is preferable to another.
27 A woman's beauty lights up a man's face, and there is nothing he desires more.
28 If kindness and humility mark her speech, her husband is more fortunate than other men.
29 He who acquires a wife gets his best possession, a helper fit for him and a pillar of support.

Footnotes 3

  • [a]. Heb and two Gk witnesses: Lat and most Gk witnesses read [according to the blessing of Aaron for]
  • [b]. Heb: Gk [enters upon a possession]
  • [c]. Heb: Gk [rest]
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.