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14 Gifts from senseless people
won’t profit you,[a]
    because they look for a lot
    rather than a little in return.[b]
15 They will give a little and reproach a lot,
    and they will open their mouths
    like a town crier.
    Today they will lend
    and tomorrow ask for it back;
    such people are hateful.
16 Fools say, “I don’t have a friend,
    and there’s no gratitude
    for my good deeds.”
    Those who eat the bread of such people
    have mean tongues.

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Footnotes

  1. Sirach 20:14 LXXb adds and neither will the gift of a grudging person who’s forced to give.
  2. Sirach 20:14 LXX for their eyes are many rather than one

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