Sirach 26:16-18

Good News Translation

¹⁶The beauty of a good wife in her well-kept home is like the noonday sun shining in the Lord's sky. ¹⁷Her beautiful face and attractive figure are^[a] as lovely as the light from the sacred lampstand in the Temple, ¹⁸and like its gold shaft set on its silver base are her shapely legs and strong ankles.^[b]^[c]

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Footnotes

Sirach 26:17 and attractive figure are; or as she grows older is.
Sirach 26:18 strong ankles; some manuscripts have firm breasts or determined heart.
Sirach 26:18 Some manuscripts add verses 19-27: My child, stay healthy while you are young, and don't give your strength to strangers. ²⁰Search the whole land for a fertile field, and plant it with your own seed, trusting your own good stock. ²¹Then your children will survive and grow up confident of their good family. ²²A prostitute is like spit; a married woman who has affairs brings death to her lovers. ²³A lawless man will get a godless wife, as he deserves, but a man who honors the Lord will have a devout wife. ²⁴A shameless wife enjoys making a disgrace of herself, but a modest wife will act modestly even alone with her husband. ²⁵A self-willed woman is a bitch, but a woman with a sense of decency honors the Lord. ²⁶A wife who honors her husband will seem wise to everyone; but if she dishonors him by her overbearing attitude, everyone will know that she is ungodly. Fortunate is the husband of a good wife, because he will live twice as long. ²⁷A loud-mouthed, talkative woman is like a trumpet sounding the signal for attack, and any man who has such a wife will spend his life at war.