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1 A wise judge will instruct his people; and the government of a prudent man is well ordered. 2 As the judge of the people is himself, so are his officers; and what manner of man the ruler of the city is, such are all they that dwell therein. 3 An unwise king destroyeth his people; but through the prudence of them which are in authority the city shall be inhabited. 4 The power of the earth is in the hand of the Lord, and in due time he will set over it one that is profitable. 5 In the hand of God is the prosperity of man: and upon the person of the scribe shall he lay his honour. 6 Bear not hatred to thy neighbour for every wrong; and do nothing at all by injurious practices. 7 Pride is hateful before God and man: and by both doth one commit iniquity. 8 Because of unrighteous dealings, injuries, and riches got by deceit, the kingdom is translated from one people to another. 9 Why is earth and ashes proud? There is not a more wicked thing than a covetous man: for such an one setteth his own soul to sale; because while he liveth he casteth away his bowels. 10 The physician cutteth off a long disease; and he that is to day a king to morrow shall die. 11 For when a man is dead, he shall inherit creeping things, beasts, and worms. 12 The beginning of pride is when one departeth from God, and his heart is turned away from his Maker. 13 For pride is the beginning of sin, and he that hath it shall pour out abomination: and therefore the Lord brought upon them strange calamities, and overthrew them utterly. 14 The Lord hath cast down the thrones of proud princes, and set up the meek in their stead. 15 The Lord hath plucked up the roots of the proud nations, and planted the lowly in their place. 16 The Lord overthrew countries of the heathen, and destroyed them to the foundations of the earth. 17 He took some of them away, and destroyed them, and hath made their memorial to cease from the earth. 18 Pride was not made for men, nor furious anger for them that are born of a woman. 19 They that fear the Lord are a sure seed, and they that love him an honourable plant: they that regard not the law are a dishonourable seed; they that transgress the commandments are a deceivable seed. 20 Among brethren he that is chief is honorable; so are they that fear the Lord in his eyes. 21 The fear of the Lord goeth before the obtaining of authority: but roughness and pride is the losing thereof. 22 Whether he be rich, noble, or poor, their glory is the fear of the Lord. 23 It is not meet to despise the poor man that hath understanding; neither is it convenient to magnify a sinful man. 24 Great men, and judges, and potentates, shall be honoured; yet is there none of them greater than he that feareth the Lord. 25 Unto the servant that is wise shall they that are free do service: and he that hath knowledge will not grudge when he is reformed. 26 Be not overwise in doing thy business; and boast not thyself in the time of thy distress. 27 Better is he that laboureth, and aboundeth in all things, than he that boasteth himself, and wanteth bread. 28 My son, glorify thy soul in meekness, and give it honour according to the dignity thereof. 29 Who will justify him that sinneth against his own soul? and who will honour him that dishonoureth his own life? 30 The poor man is honoured for his skill, and the rich man is honoured for his riches. 31 He that is honoured in poverty, how much more in riches? and he that is dishonourable in riches, how much more in poverty?
[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Sirach 10:2
The city of Christ is the holy church, which follows his footsteps with the affection of a devoted heart and imitates him in the realization of good works. It is there where his ministers, that is, the leaders of the faithful, and the holy preachers observe his commandments and never cease in ordering others to do so as well. And Qoheleth praises their conduct inspired by moderation: “Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of free people, and your princes feast at the proper time, for strength, and not for drunkenness!” Of another king he says quite the opposite: “Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes feast in the morning!” Woe, then, to the land whose king is the devil, always avid for new prey; as judges and princes he has those who love the pleasures of this world, those who say before their death arrives, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Instead, blessed is the land of the church, for Christ is its king, the son of nobles, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who descends from the lineage of the prophets and all the saints, from those who have not been dominated by sin and for that reason are free. His princes are the apostles and all the saints, whose king is the son of nobles, and they do not eat until the morning—or with voracious appetites. They do not indeed search for the pleasures of this world, but they will eat in their due time, when the moment of reward arrives: “Blessed is one who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.”

[AD 500] Salvian the Presbyter on Sirach 10:8
People must aspire to wealth, procure it, hold in trust, increase it—only they should do so having in mind those we previously indicated. Otherwise, when one makes bad use of the assets he has, which are a gift from God, disastrous, irreparable damage occurs. As sacred Scripture says, “There is nothing more wicked than a miser.” Wealth kept from one’s Lord does the worst and most deadly kind of damage. This is an incontrovertible truth! What is worse or more horrible than for anyone to change the asset we enjoy in the world into disasters for the future? What is worse than the fact that death and damnation are pursued with these very things that have been given to us by the Lord for the purpose of obtaining a true eternally happy life from them? But we must also contemplate the fact that if wealth held in trust is a source of trouble for people, piling up more wealth without stopping to see what it is doing constitutes an even more serious calamity. Who among the rich, in fact, is equipped with the kind of temperament that can limit himself to conserve and not to increase his assets? Our present time is indeed wretched and deplorable in which people reduce themselves to this. Scripture asserts that it is a serious crime to even keep money. Today, people believe it is a virtue not only to keep but also to add to their wealth. Once again, therefore, we ask: How can someone think he or she is undamaged by guilt, if even at the moment of death, having no thought for salvation, people do not donate the assets they possess, since they have already committed a crime in keeping them until the moment they depart this life? How will these people not be guilty who, by a predilection toward vanity that is completely sacrilegious, leave their wealth to just anyone, especially since those who have not deprived themselves of at least a portion of their possessions for the worship of God will be found guilty in this life? The same Lord is our master in this matter as well. Through the apostle he says, “And now to you who are rich: weep over the disaster that will come on you! Your wealth is corrupted, and your gold and silver are consumed by rust; their rust will be raised in testimony against you and will devour your flesh like fire. You have accumulated treasures for the last days!”

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Sirach 10:9
Pride, haughtiness and arrogance are the sins of the devil, and for these faults you must leave heaven for earth. Thus, “God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.” And “How can he make dust and ashes proud?” so that one becomes arrogant, forgetting what he will become, in which fragile casing he is contained, in which excrements he drowns and which garbage he continuously emits from his flesh? What do the Scriptures say? “How can he make dust and ashes proud?” And again: “During life, one ruins one’s own entrails.” Pride is the greatest of all sins and the principal fault of the devil. When sometimes the Scriptures list the sins of the devil, you will discover that these come forth from the source of pride. Indeed, it says, “I will act in strength, and in the wisdom of my understanding I will remove the boundaries of nations and will spoil their strength. And I will shake the inhabited cities: and I will take with my hand all the world as a nest: and I will even take them as eggs that have been left.” Observe how arrogant and haughty his words are and how he does not take anything into account. So are all those who are puffed up by boasting and by pride. Wealth, prestige and earthly glory are bait for pride.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Sirach 10:9
“No one knows the things of a person except the spirit of man which is in him.” And yet, there is something of a person that “the spirit … in him” does not know. But you, Lord, who made him, you fully know him. I indeed, though in your sight I despise myself and consider “myself but dust and ashes”—I still know something concerning you that I do not know about myself. Most assuredly, “we see through a glass dimly,” “not yet face to face.” As long as I am absent from you, I am more present with myself than with you.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Sirach 10:9
I am afraid that the reason why the soul went forth away from God is that it was proud. In fact, I have no doubt about it. For it is written, “Pride is the beginning of all sin,” and “the beginning of human pride is a falling away from God.” It is written, it is firm and sure, it is true. And so, what is said of proud mortal humanity, clad in the tattered rags of the flesh, weighed down with the weight of a corruptible body, and all the while extolling himself, and forgetting the very skin he is clothed with—what, I ask, do the Scriptures say to him? “Why is dust and ashes proud?” Why proud! Let the Scriptures tell why. “Because in his life he put forth his inmost parts.” What does “put forth” mean except that he “threw it far away”? In other words, to send them out. For to enter within is to long after the inmost parts; to put forth the inmost parts is to send them out. The proud man gets rid of the inmost parts, the humble man earnestly desires the inmost parts. If we are cast out by pride, let us return by humility.

[AD 533] Fulgentius of Ruspe on Sirach 10:9
We should not think of God as the author of good works as if only at the dawn of creation he provided human nature the possibility of doing good in such a way that, after his help was taken away, human nature on its own could want or do anything good on its own. In reality, on its own initiative, human nature could not have realized such a possibility, not even in the first man even while he was still not yet wounded by sin. Therefore, how can human nature restore its own health without the aid of a physician since, while it was healthy, it could not even succeed in safeguarding its health then? Therefore, earth and ash should not get puffed up because it has abandoned its most visceral thoughts in this life; nor should the wounded act as if he were healthy because he thinks he has healed that part of himself. Rather, he should reflect with the humility of a wounded heart on the putridness of his wounds so that, proclaiming with the prophet, “My wounds grow foul and fester because of my foolishness,” he can obtain healing not because of his own merit but because of the free gift of divine mercy. In fact, what does a person possess that he has not already received? But if he has received it, then why does he glory in himself as if he had not received it?

[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Sirach 10:9
The humble and the proud are admonished differently. For the humble, it is to be insinuated how true that excellence is that they hold in hoping for it. For the proud, it is to be intimated how that temporal glory is as nothing, that even when they embrace it they are not holding it. Let the humble hear how eternal the things are that they long for, how transitory the things are that they despise. Let the proud hear how transitory the things are that they court and how eternal the things are that they lose. Let the humble hear from the authoritative voice of the Truth, “Everyone who humbles himself shall be exalted.” Let the proud hear, “Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled.” Let the humble hear, “Humility goes before glory”; let the proud hear, “The spirit is exalted before a fall.” Let the humble hear, “To whom shall I have respect, but to one who is humble and quiet and trembles at my words?” Let the proud hear, “Why are earth and ashes proud?” Let the humble hear, “God respects the humble.” Let the proud hear, “And the proud he knows from afar.” Let the humble hear, “That the Son of man came not to be ministered to but to minister.” Let the proud hear that “the beginning of all sin is pride.” Let the humble hear that “our Redeemer humbled himself, being made obedient even to death.” Let the proud hear what is written concerning their head: “He is king over all the children of pride.” The pride, therefore, of the devil became the occasion of our perdition, and the humility of God has been found as the argument for our redemption. For our enemy, who is among the created beings, desired to appear exalted above all things. But our Redeemer, remaining great above all things, decided instead to become little among all things. Let the humble, then, be told that when they abase themselves, they ascend to the likeness of God. Let the proud be told that when they exalt themselves, they fall into imitation of the apostate angel.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Sirach 10:12
“Those who do such things deserve to die.” Which things? Those he had previously listed as punishments. In fact, “God gave them up,” he says, “in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, because they do that which should not be done. To be an adulterer is already a kind of punishment; to be a liar, a miser, a cheat, a murderer, these are already punishments. Punishments for which sin? Of the primordial apostasy, the supreme sin of pride. “The beginning of human sin is rebellion against God,” and, “The beginning of every sin is pride.” For the apostle had spoken of this antecedent of sin: “Although they knew God, they neither gave him glory nor rendered thanks to him; instead, they have become futile in their reasonings, and their obtuse minds have become darkened.” A darkened heart is already a punishment. But from what does it derive? “While declaring themselves wise, they have become fools.” They said that what they had received from God derived from themselves; or, if they knew from whom they had received it, they still did not give the glory to the one from whom they received it.

[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Sirach 10:13
“The gate of hell” means the beginning of sin because it is written, “The wages of sin is death,” and to say “death” is equivalent to saying “hell.” The Scripture also explains what constitutes the beginning of sin: “The beginning of every sin is pride.” Therefore pride is the gate of hell. When one inquires concerning the causes that have produced heresies, one sees that they were born from pride because pride pushes people, in the end, toward heresies and schisms when they boast of their abilities and their holiness with the goal of attracting people to themselves but with the result of detaching them from Christ. But all heresies and schisms derive from these children of pride who will not overcome the catholic church, as it was precisely foretold, “The gates of hell will not prevail against it.”

[AD 505] Julianus Pomerius on Sirach 10:13
Who could say anything clearer or of more value? “Pride is the beginning,” it says, not simply of some but “of every sin,” in order to emphasize how pride is, in itself, the cause of all sins. Not only is it in itself sin, but also no sin could have been, can be or ever will be committed without pride. Every sin, in effect, is nothing other than contempt of God, leading one to trample on his commandments. And what, other than pride, inspires people to this contempt? Indeed, in the devil it showed itself to be the cause of eternal damnation, and from the angel that he was he became (precisely) the devil. And it was he who, knowing that he was cast out of heaven for the sin of pride and banished to this dark prison, and corrupting the one whom God had created innocent, with serpentine cunning he insinuated the vice of pride in humankind. He was certain that once pride, the root of every evil, was accepted, the man would then easily commit all sins, which germinate only in the proud soul.

[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Sirach 10:13
A person looks around him with vigilance and care. He examines his thoughts; bringing back to mind the life of his audience, he humbles himself and does his best in every way because then pride does not pop up in the mind in order to dominate him with its deeds. That is why it is written, “The beginning of all sin is pride.” What, then, shall be the fruit of good work before the eyes of God, if it is corrupted from the root by pride? Often … his soul is tempted by anger, but looking around him, he immediately composes himself within and, submitting himself to discipline, acts thus so that the movement of the soul does not pass into words, does not explode into voice. And so it happens that the anger of the agitated soul dies, suffocated by reason, where it would otherwise rise through negligence. And so it happens that from a fault conceived, the soul gives birth to virtue, since although he did not know how to persistently keep watch so that the movement would not arise, he nevertheless vigorously conquered the agitation.

[AD 384] Ambrosiaster on Sirach 10:25
“He who is called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord.” Someone who is rescued from sins, which are truly indicative of “slaves,” becomes a freedman of the Lord. For he who behaves unwisely is a slave through and through. This was the opinion of the ancients too, who called wise people “free,” and all the unwise, “slaves.” Thus Solomon says, “Free people shall serve a slave who is wise.” Therefore one who believes, even if he is a slave for a time, becomes a freedman of the Lord because, in believing in Christ, he is doing a wise thing. For sins create slaves, as Ham the son of Noah was made a slave for his sin and lack of prudence, for when someone receives remission of sins, he becomes a freedman.

[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Sirach 10:26
Avoid boasting about one’s own good works, for arrogance of this kind is an abomination before the eyes of God and stops one from doing good in adversity, “because tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope.”

[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Sirach 10:31
This means that the one who places all of his trust in the abundance of earthly things must fear future poverty, always remembering that evangelical parable of the rich man dressed in purple and the poor Lazarus. The one clothed with temporary glory is thrown into eternal torments while the other clothed in the misery of the present life rises to eternal joy. And James also says this: “Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted and the rich in that he is made low.” For whoever humbly undergoes adversities for the Lord shall receive the highest rewards of the kingdom from him. In other words, the rich should boast in their humiliation—in an ironic twist—otherwise, they will see the “glory” that is due them for the pride they placed in their riches while disregarding the poor or even oppressing them—their end will be perpetual punishment.