Sirach 25:1-11

Common English Bible

³ If you have gathered nothing
in your youth,
    how then will you find anything
    in your old age?
⁴ How beautiful is sound judgment
in gray-haired women
    and finding good advice in elderly men!
⁵ How beautiful is wisdom in the aged
    and thought and counsel
    in those who are respectable!
⁶ Experience is the crown of the aged
    and respecting the Lord
    is their claim to fame.
⁷ In my heart, I would consider
nine conditions to be happy,
        and I’ll name a tenth with my tongue—
    people who are made glad
    by their children,
    and who live to see the downfall
of their enemies.
⁸     Happy are those
    who live with sensible wives,^[a]
    who don’t slip with their tongue,
    and who haven’t been a servant to one inferior to themselves.
⁹     Happy is the one
    who has gained good sense
        and who is passing this along
        to listening ears.
¹⁰     How great is one who finds Wisdom,
        but no one does better
        than the one who fears the Lord.
¹¹     Fear of the Lord surpasses everything;
        those who possess it are incomparable.^[b]