Add parallel Print Page Options

15 By patience is a ruler persuaded,(A)
    and a soft tongue can break a bone.

Read full chapter

True Friendship[a]

Pleasant speech multiplies friends,
    and gracious lips, friendly greetings.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 6:5–17 One of several poems Ben Sira wrote on friendship; see also 9:10–16; 12:8–18; 13:1–23; 19:13–17; 22:19–26; 27:16–21. True friends are discerned not by prosperity (v. 11), but through the trials of adversity: distress, quarrels (v. 9), sorrow (v. 10) and misfortune (v. 12). Such friends are rare, a gift from God (vv. 14–17).