Ben Sira 41:1-9

1 Death! The very thought of it is bitter to someone who is prosperous, living peacefully with his possessions, free of worries, and still able to enjoy his food.
2 Death! Its sentence is welcome to someone living in poverty, with failing health, very old, burdened with worries, blind, and without hope.
3 Do not be afraid of death's decree. Remember that it came to those before you and will come to those after you.
4 The Lord has decreed it for every living creature. Who are you to object to what the Most High wishes? In the world of the dead no one will care whether you lived ten years, a hundred, or a thousand.
5 The children of sinners, brought up in ungodly surroundings, turn out to be hateful people.
6 They will lose whatever they inherit, and their own descendants will live in permanent disgrace.
7 The children will put the blame for their disgrace on their ungodly parents.
8 You are doomed, you irreligious people who have abandoned the Law of the Most High God.
9 When you have children, disaster will strike them and you will be left with nothing but sorrow. There will be great joy whenever you stumble, and even after your death you will be cursed.

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. [Hebrew] blind, and without hope; [Greek] rebellious and without patience.
  • [b]. [Hebrew] When you have . . . stumble; [Greek] You are born under a curse.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.