Sirach 11:10-28

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

¹⁰ My child, do not busy yourself with many matters;
    if you multiply activities, you will not be held blameless.
If you pursue, you will not overtake,
    and by fleeing you will not escape.
¹¹ There are those who work and struggle and hurry,
    but are so much the more in want.
¹² There are others who are slow and need help,
    who lack strength and abound in poverty;
but the eyes of the Lord look kindly upon them;
    he lifts them out of their lowly condition
¹³ and raises up their heads
    to the amazement of the many.

¹⁴ Good things and bad, life and death,
    poverty and wealth, come from the Lord.^[a]
17 The Lord’s gift remains with the devout,
    and his favor brings lasting success.
¹⁸ One becomes rich through diligence and self-denial,
    and the reward allotted to him is this:
¹⁹ when he says, “I have found rest,
    and now I shall feast on my goods!”
he does not know how long it will be
    until he leaves them to others and dies.

²⁰ Stand by your agreement and attend to it,
    and grow old in your work.
²¹ Do not wonder at the works of a sinner,
    but trust in the Lord and keep at your job;
for it is easy in the sight of the Lord
    to make the poor rich suddenly, in an instant.
²² The blessing of the Lord is^[b] the reward of the pious,
    and quickly God causes his blessing to flourish.
²³ Do not say, “What do I need,
    and what further benefit can be mine?”
²⁴ Do not say, “I have enough,
    and what harm can come to me now?”
²⁵ In the day of prosperity, adversity is forgotten,
    and in the day of adversity, prosperity is not remembered.
²⁶ For it is easy for the Lord on the day of death
    to reward individuals according to their conduct.
²⁷ An hour’s misery makes one forget past delights,
    and at the close of one’s life one’s deeds are revealed.
²⁸ Call no one happy before his death;
    by how he ends, a person becomes known.^[c]