Sirach 34

Common English Bible

34 Senseless people
have empty and false hopes,
    and dreams excite fools.
² Those who pay attention to dreams
    are just like people who grasp
    at a shadow or pursue the wind.
³ What one sees in a dream is a reflection,
    a face looking at its own likeness.
⁴ What will be made clean
from something unclean?
    And what will be true
    of something false?
⁵ Divinations, omens,
and dreams are empty.
    The mind has fantasies,
    just like a woman in labor does.
⁶ Unless the Most High sends a dream
by means of a visitation,
    don’t pay any attention to it.
⁷ Dreams have misled many,
    and those who have placed hope in them have fallen.
⁸ The Law will be fulfilled without lies;
    wisdom in a faithful person’s mouth
    is fulfillment.

⁹ People who have traveled know a lot,
    and those who are experienced
    will speak sense.
¹⁰ People with no experience know little,
¹¹     but those who have traveled
    have become more clever.
¹² I have seen a lot in my wandering,
    and I understand more than I can tell.
¹³ I’ve often been in danger,
close to death,
    and I was saved
    because of these experiences.

²¹ When someone sacrifices something unjustly gotten,
    the offering is flawed;
²²     the gifts of those who don’t follow
    the Law are not acceptable.
²³ The Most High is not pleased
with the offerings of the ungodly,
    nor will he forgive sins
    for a multitude of sacrifices.
²⁴ Someone who brings a sacrifice that comes from the property of the needy
    is like someone who slaughters a son
    in the presence of his father.
²⁵ The needy person’s bread
means life for that poor person;
    whoever withholds it is a murderer.
²⁶ Whoever takes away a neighbor’s living
commits murder,
²⁷     and whoever deprives a worker
    of wages sheds blood.