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Vulgate: Ecclesiasticus

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Ecclesiasticus, also known as Sirach or the Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach, is a book of instruction written in Hebrew at Jerusalem around 180 BC and translated into Greek by the author’s grandson in Egypt. Its fifty-one chapters of sayings and poems treat the fear of God, friendship, speech, family life, wealth, the duties of the scribe and the praise of Wisdom, and conclude with a hymn in praise of the famous men of Israel’s history. The Vulgate text is an Old Latin translation which Jerome did not revise.

Sirach is the longest of the wisdom books and was so widely used in the instruction of converts that the Latin Church called it Ecclesiasticus, ‘the church book’. It is deuterocanonical, excluded from the Hebrew Bible and placed among the Apocrypha by Protestants. Its praise of famous men supplied a model for later eulogy, and its sayings were quoted constantly by medieval preachers and in monastic rules. The Old Latin text is longer in places than the Greek and preserves early Christian Latin vocabulary.

About this edition. The Latin text comes from the Lasciva Roma collection of additional Latin texts (edition: Jerome's 405 a.d., Latin Vulgate These files were produced following modern scholarship of the available Vulgate mss. The apocryphal books are prefixed with…), licensed CC BY-NC-SA. Every word has been analyzed with LatinCy, a neural language model for Latin — click or tap any word for its dictionary form, part of speech, and complete morphology, together with the full entry from Lewis & Short’s A Latin Dictionary.

Latin · Early Christian Writings
Ecclesiasticus
Vulgate · Chapter 39 · every word parsed
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1
sapientiam omnium antiquorum exquiret et in prophetiis uacabit
narrationem uirorum nominatorum conseruabit et in uersutias parabolarum simul introibit
occulta prouerbiorum exquiret et in absconditis parabolarum conuersabitur
in medio magnatorum ministrabit et in conspectu praesidis apparebit
5
in terram alienarum gentium pertransiet bona enim et mala in hominibus temptauit
cor suum tradet ad uigilandum diluculo ad Dominum qui fecit illum et in conspectu Altissimi deprecabitur
aperiet os suum in oratione et pro delictis suis deprecabitur
si enim Dominus magnus uoluerit spiritu intellegentiae replebit illum
et ipse tamquam imbres mittet eloquia sapientiae suae et in oratione confitebitur Domino
10
ipse diriget consilium eius et disciplinam et in absconditis suis consiliabitur
ipse palam faciet disciplinam doctrinae suae et in lege testamenti Domini gloriabitur
conlaudabunt multi sapientiam eius et usque in saeculum non delebitur
non recedet memoria eius et nomen eius requiretur a generatione in generationem
sapientiam eius enarrabunt gentes et laudem eius nuntiabit ecclesia
15
si inmanserit nomen derelinquet mille et si requieuerit proderit illi
adhuc consiliabor ut enarrem ut furore enim repletus sum
in uoce dicit obaudite me diuini fructus et quasi rosa plantata super riuum aquarum fructificate
quasi libanus odorem suauitatis habete
florete flores quasi lilium date odorem et frondete in gratiam et conlaudate canticum et benedicite Dominum in operibus suis
20
date nomini eius magnificentiam et confitemini illi in uoce labiorum uestrorum in canticis labiorum et cinyris et sic dicetis in confessione
opera Domini uniuersa bona ualde
in uerbo eius stetit aqua sicut congeries et in sermone oris eius sicut exceptoria aquarum
quoniam in praecepto ipsius placor fit et non est minoratio in salute illius
opera omnis carnis coram illo et non est quicquam absconditum ab oculis eius
25
a saeculo usque in saeculum respicit et nihil est mirabile in conspectu eius
non est dicere quid est hoc aut quid est illud omnia enim in tempore suo quaerentur
benedictio illius quasi fluuius inundauit
et quomodo cataclysmus aridam inebriauit sic ira ipsius gentes quae non exquisierunt eum hereditabit
quomodo conuertit aquas et siccata est terra et uiae illius uiis illorum directae sunt sic peccatoribus offensiones in ira eius
30
bona bonis creata sunt ab initio sic nequissimis bona et mala
initium necessariae rei uitae hominum aqua ignis et ferrum lac et panis similagineus et mel et botrus uuae et oleum et uestimentum
haec omnia sanctis in bona sic et impiis et peccatoribus in mala conuertentur
sunt spiritus qui ad uindictam creati sunt et in furore suo confirmauerunt tormenta sua
in tempore consummationis effundent uirtutem et furorem eius qui fecit illos confundent
35
ignis grando famis et mors omnia haec ad uindictam creata sunt
bestiarum dentes et scorpii et serpentes et romphea uindicans in exterminium impios
in mandatis eius epulabuntur et super terram in necessitatem praeparabuntur et in temporibus suis non praeterient uerbum
propterea ab initio confirmatus et consiliatus sum et cogitaui et in scripta dimisi
omnia opera Domini bona et omne opus hora sua subministrabit
40
non est dicere hoc illo nequius est omnia enim in tempore suo conprobabuntur
et nunc in omni corde et ore conlaudate et benedicite nomen Domini
Click or tap any word for its parse and dictionary entry.
Text: Perseus Digital Library, licensed CC BY-SA. Dictionary: Lewis & Short (Perseus, CC BY-SA). Morphology: LatinCy — machine parsing, corrected against the AGDT & PROIEL treebanks and Morpheus.
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