What does Ecclesiasticus Chapter 14 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Covetousness and generosity warnings retain conditional goods, friend and poor instructions. Mortality and work comparisons distinguish corruptible work from justified excellent work. Wisdom pursuit is pictured through house, tent and shelter without added immunity guarantees.

Chapter breakdown

Ecclesiasticus 14 calls blessed the person without tongue-slip and sin-remorse, or sadness of mind and fallen hope. Riches do not fit covetous niggards, and the envious person's gold is questioned: wrongdoing against one's soul gathers for others who squander goods in riot. One evil to self cannot be good to others or enjoy goods; none is worse than self-envy. If such a person does good, the text says it is ignorant and unwilling, with wickedness later revealed. Envious eyes turn faces away and despise one's soul; insatiable covetous eyes dry it. An evil eye turns upon bread and fails to fill the needy, pensive at its table.

If possessing goods, do good to self and offer worthy gifts to God. Remember death is not slow and hell's covenant has been shown to the world, the covenant being to die. The separate edition note explains hell here as the universal death decree, without adding an inability to repent afterward. Do good to a friend before death and according to ability relieve poor people. Do not lose a good day or part of a good gift. The chapter asks about leaving others one's sorrowful labor to divide by lot; it urges giving, taking and justifying the soul, doing justice before death because no food is found in hell. Flesh resembles grass and leaves on a green tree, some growing and some falling, so generations end and begin. Corruptible work fails with its worker, whereas excellent work is justified and its worker honored.

Blessed wisdom-seeking includes meditation on his justice and the all-seeing eye, thinking on her ways and understanding secrets. Follow her track and ways, look through windows and listen at the door. Lodge near her house, fasten a pin to her walls, pitch a tent high near her and lodge with her good things forever. Put children under her shelter and branches; heat is covered and glory gives rest. The shelter image is not a narrated achievement or a guarantee of immunity from worldly trials.

The story inside

Opening: Covetousness and generosity warnings retain conditional goods, friend and poor instructions. Development: Mortality and work comparisons distinguish corruptible work from justified excellent work. Conclusion: Wisdom pursuit is pictured through house, tent and shelter without added immunity guarantees.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Covetousness and generosity warnings retain conditional goods, friend and poor instructions.
2
Mortality and work comparisons distinguish corruptible work from justified excellent work.
3
Wisdom pursuit is pictured through house, tent and shelter without added immunity guarantees.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 74555–74556
14:1. Blessed is the man that hath not slipped by a word out of his mouth, and is not pricked with the remorse of sin.
Lines 74589–74591
14:12. Remember that death is not slow, and that the covenant of hell hath been shewn to thee: for the covenant of this world shall surely die.
Lines 74622–74624
14:22. Blessed is the man that shall continue in wisdom, and that shall meditate in his justice, and in his mind shall think of the all seeing eye of God.