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Wisdom of Ben Sira 25:7-11
New Catholic Bible
Wisdom of Ben Sira 25:7-11
New Catholic Bible
Beatitudes[a]
7 I can think of nine whom I would call blessed,
and a tenth whom my tongue proclaims:
blessed is the man who delights in his children,
and the one who lives to see the downfall of his enemies;
8 blessed is the one who lives with a sensible wife
and the one who does not plow with ox and ass together;[b]
blessed is the one who does not sin with the tongue
and the one who does not serve an inferior;
9 blessed is the one who finds a friend
and the one who speaks to an attentive audience.
10 How great is the one who finds wisdom,
but without equal is the one who fears the Lord.
11 The fear of the Lord surpasses everything;
to whom can we compare the one who possesses it?
Footnotes
- Wisdom of Ben Sira 25:7 Under the agreeable form of a numerical proverb, the author enumerates some aspects of happiness; the list of these human successes gives value to the true happiness that is wisdom, the fear of God. Pleasure at the fall of an enemy (v. 7) is indeed human; we are not yet at the level of the Sermon on the Mount where we will find the Beatitudes of Christ (Mt 5:12).
- Wisdom of Ben Sira 25:8 And ass together: lacking in Greek. The tongue: some early MSS read: “a friend.”
