Sirach 16:17-30

Revised Standard Version

¹⁷ Do not say, “I shall be hidden from the Lord,
    and who from on high will remember me?
Among so many people I shall not be known,
    for what is my soul in the boundless creation?
¹⁸ Behold, heaven and the highest heaven,
    the abyss and the earth, will tremble at his visitation.
¹⁹ The mountains also and the foundations of the earth
    shake with trembling when he looks upon them.
²⁰ And no mind will reflect on this.
    Who will ponder his ways?
²¹ Like a tempest which no man can see,
    so most of his works are concealed.
²² Who will announce his acts of justice?
    Or who will await them? For the covenant is far off.”
²³ This is what one devoid of understanding thinks;
    a senseless and misguided man thinks foolishly.

²⁶ The works of the Lord have existed from the beginning by his creation,^[a]
    and when he made them, he determined their divisions.
²⁷ He arranged his works in an eternal order,
    and their dominion^[b] for all^[c] generations;
they neither hunger nor grow weary,
    and they do not cease from their labors.
²⁸ They do not crowd one another aside,
    and they will never disobey his word.
²⁹ After this the Lord looked upon the earth,
    and filled it with his good things;
³⁰ with all kinds of living beings he covered its surface,
    and to it they return.