Of the remembrance of death: of an evil and of a good name: of what
things we ought to be ashamed.
41:1. O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that hath
peace in his possessions!
41:2. To a man that is at rest, and whose ways are prosperous in all
things, and that is yet able to take meat!
41:3. O death thy sentence is welcome to the man that is in need, and
to him whose strength faileth:
41:4. Who is in a decrepit age, and that is in care about all things,
and to the distrustful that loseth patience!
41:5. Fear not the sentence of death. Remember what things have been
before thee, and what shall come after thee: this sentence is from the
Lord upon all flesh.
41:6. And what shall come upon thee by the good pleasure of the most
High? whether ten, or a hundred, or a thousand years.
41:7. For among the dead there is no accusing of life.
41:8. The children of sinners become children of abominations, and they
that converse near the houses of the ungodly.
41:9. The inheritance of the children of sinners shall perish, and with
their posterity shall be a perpetual reproach.
41:10. The children will complain of an ungodly father, because for his
sake they are in reproach.
41:11. Woe to you, ungodly men, who have forsaken the law of the most
high Lord.
41:12. And if you be born, you shall be born in malediction: and if you
die, in malediction shall be your portion.
41:13. All things that are of the earth, shall return into the earth:
so the ungodly shall from malediction to destruction.
41:14. The mourning of men is about their body, but the name of the
ungodly shall be blotted out.
41:15. Take care of a good name: for this shall continue with thee,
more than a thousand treasures precious and great.
41:16. A good life hath its number of days: but a good name shall
continue for ever.
41:17. My children, keep discipline in peace: for wisdom that is hid,
and a treasure that is not seen, what profit is there in them both?
41:18. Better is the man that hideth his folly, than the man that
hideth his wisdom.
41:19. Wherefore have a shame of these things I am now going to speak
of.
Have a shame, etc. . .That is to say, be ashamed of doing any of these
things, which I am now going to mention; for though sometimes
shamefacedness is not to be indulged: yet it is often good and
necessary: as in the following cases.
41:20. For it is not good to keep all shamefacedness: and all things do
not please all men in opinion.
41:21. Be ashamed of fornication before father and mother: and of a lie
before a governor and a man in power:
41:22. Of an offence before a prince, and a judge: of iniquity before a
congregation and a people:
41:23. Of injustice before a companion and friend: and in regard to the
place where thou dwellest,
41:24. Of theft, and of the truth of God, and the covenant: of leaning
with thy elbow over meat, and of deceit in giving and taking:
41:25. Of silence before them that salute thee: of looking upon a
harlot: and of turning away thy face from thy kinsman.
41:26. Turn not away thy face from thy neighbour, and of taking away a
portion and not restoring.
41:27. Gaze not upon another man's wife, and be not inquisitive after
his handmaid, and approach not her bed.
41:28. Be ashamed of upbraiding speeches before friends: and after thou
hast given, upbraid not.