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1 O Lord, Father and Governor of all my whole life, leave me not to their counsels, and let me not fall by them. 2 Who will set scourges over my thoughts, and the discipline of wisdom over mine heart? that they spare me not for mine ignorances, and it pass not by my sins: 3 Lest mine ignorances increase, and my sins abound to my destruction, and I fall before mine adversaries, and mine enemy rejoice over me, whose hope is far from thy mercy. 4 O Lord, Father and God of my life, give me not a proud look, but turn away from thy servants always a haughty mind. 5 Turn away from me vain hopes and concupiscence, and thou shalt hold him up that is desirous always to serve thee. 6 Let not the greediness of the belly nor lust of the flesh take hold of me; and give not over me thy servant into an impudent mind. 7 Hear, O ye children, the discipline of the mouth: he that keepeth it shall never be taken in his lips. 8 The sinner shall be left in his foolishness: both the evil speaker and the proud shall fall thereby. 9 Accustom not thy mouth to swearing; neither use thyself to the naming of the Holy One. 10 For as a servant that is continually beaten shall not be without a blue mark: so he that sweareth and nameth God continually shall not be faultless. 11 A man that useth much swearing shall be filled with iniquity, and the plague shall never depart from his house: if he shall offend, his sin shall be upon him: and if he acknowledge not his sin, he maketh a double offence: and if he swear in vain, he shall not be innocent, but his house shall be full of calamities. 12 There is a word that is clothed about with death: God grant that it be not found in the heritage of Jacob; for all such things shall be far from the godly, and they shall not wallow in their sins. 13 Use not thy mouth to intemperate swearing, for therein is the word of sin. 14 Remember thy father and thy mother, when thou sittest among great men. Be not forgetful before them, and so thou by thy custom become a fool, and wish that thou hadst not been born, and curse they day of thy nativity. 15 The man that is accustomed to opprobrious words will never be reformed all the days of his life. 16 Two sorts of men multiply sin, and the third will bring wrath: a hot mind is as a burning fire, it will never be quenched till it be consumed: a fornicator in the body of his flesh will never cease till he hath kindled a fire. 17 All bread is sweet to a whoremonger, he will not leave off till he die. 18 A man that breaketh wedlock, saying thus in his heart, Who seeth me? I am compassed about with darkness, the walls cover me, and no body seeth me; what need I to fear? the most High will not remember my sins: 19 Such a man only feareth the eyes of men, and knoweth not that the eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun, beholding all the ways of men, and considering the most secret parts. 20 He knew all things ere ever they were created; so also after they were perfected he looked upon them all. 21 This man shall be punished in the streets of the city, and where he suspecteth not he shall be taken. 22 Thus shall it go also with the wife that leaveth her husband, and bringeth in an heir by another. 23 For first, she hath disobeyed the law of the most High; and secondly, she hath trespassed against her own husband; and thirdly, she hath played the whore in adultery, and brought children by another man. 24 She shall be brought out into the congregation, and inquisition shall be made of her children. 25 Her children shall not take root, and her branches shall bring forth no fruit. 26 She shall leave her memory to be cursed, and her reproach shall not be blotted out. 27 And they that remain shall know that there is nothing better than the fear of the Lord, and that there is nothing sweeter than to take heed unto the commandments of the Lord. 28 It is great glory to follow the Lord, and to be received of him is long life.
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[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Sirach 23:2
It is said with regard to sinners, “You whipped them, but they did not suffer.” The perceived whips of this world, inflicted on living bodies, whether those whipped want them or not, produce pain. But God’s whips are of a kind that to some of those who are whipped they cause pain but for others who are whipped, they do not. Let us see if we can explain what it means to suffer from the whips of God and what it means not to suffer: why those with evil natures do not suffer from the whips of God while those who do suffer from the whips of God are blessed. Wisdom says, “Who will apply whips to my thoughts and seals of prudence to my lips so that they2 would not spare me in my errors and so that my sins will not lead me to perdition?” Pay attention to the words “who will apply whips to my thoughts.” There are, therefore, whips that whip the thought. They are the whips of God that whip thought because the Word, joining itself to the soul and guiding it to the knowledge of its sins, whips it. It whips the blessed soul so that it suffers under its whips because the Word comes and penetrates the soul at its core, but it does not drive away the one who is reproved. But if someone is found to be insensitive to this whip, so to speak, it will be said of him, “You have whipped them, but they did not suffer.” Although the same word of accusation is pronounced in order to penetrate the mind of the one who has a spotted conscience5 from some sin, if one of the listeners suffers for this word to the point where it can be said of him, “You have seen that such a person was moved deeply” while another who hears does not suffer but remains insensitive to the one who is accusing him, surely of the insenstive one it will be said, “You have whipped them, but they have not suffered.”

Source: HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 6:2
[AD 450] Quodvultdeus on Sirach 23:6
Forgetful of freedom and grace and desiring the Egyptian foods, the people were found guilty of murmuring against God and against Moses. They say, “Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish that we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the leeks, the garlic and the onions. Now, however,” they add, “our life has dried up, and we see nothing before us but this manna.” The sweet things are rejected, the bitter desired. A grave, debilitating illness leads the soul to want to take what is harmful and to despise and reject what is useful and good for salvation. Thus they refused the manna, that is, Christ, saying, “We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this one comes from.” Christ says in reproof, “If you believed Moses, you would also believe me, because it is of me that he wrote. Indeed, I am the living bread come down from heaven.” Did they not reject the holy manna when they said to Pilate, who wanted to release Jesus, “Release not him but Barabbas”? Barabbas was a notorious thief, and by asking for his release they professed to have in a certain sense desired, from among the thief’s crimes, the leeks, the onions and the garlic, those unpleasant Egyptian foods that make one cry. To those who murmured, in fact, the divine majesty offered meats that did not restore but instead ruined those who ate them. It says in Scripture, “The natural person does not understand the things of the Spirit: every sluggard lives in concupiscence.” It is right that the spiritual person asks that the desires of his flesh be taken from him. All these things show that it is wicked to desire and to ask of God things that are harmful to the soul, and especially to ask for them with murmuring. If a soul desires to enter the promised land, it must guard itself from offending God with such a desire.

Source: THE BOOK OF PROMISES AND PREDICTIONS OF GOD 2:8.14
[AD 601] Leander of Seville on Sirach 23:9
Seek with the same scrupulousness to never offer oaths but to always speak the truth. As oaths are permitted to worldly people out of fear of deception, so for one leading a religious life oaths are prohibited, even when he has a clear conscience. The Lord says, “Let your speech be yes, yes, and no, no. Anything more comes from the evil one.” Do not swear even when you speak the truth, because that comes from evil. It is said that it comes from evil because the need to swear comes from a bad conscience: one constrains a person to swear when he doubts his sincerity. You who should have the simplicity2 of the heart on your lips, why would you spontaneously bind yourself with an oath? Do not make a habit of either swearing in the good or perjuring in the bad. Speak the truth with all your heart, and there will be no need for oaths, as we read: “Do not accustom yourself to oaths, because by swearing many have fallen.”

Source: LETTER TO HIS SISTER FLORENTINE 29
[AD 386] Cyril of Jerusalem on Sirach 23:18
Let us be careful about our bodies. Let us also not misuse them as though they were not our own. Let us not say, like the heretics do, that this vesture of the body does not belong to us. Instead, let us take care of it as our own, for we must give account to the Lord of all things done through the body. Do not say, No one sees me. Do not think that there is no witness of what you did. More often than not, there is no human witness, but he who made us—an unerring witness—remains faithful in heaven, and sees what you are doing. And the stains of sin also remain in the body. For as when a wound has gone deep into the body, even if there has been healing, the scar remains, so sin wounds soul and body, and the marks of its scars remain in all. And they are removed only from those who receive the washing of baptism. The past wounds therefore of soul and body God heals by baptism; against future ones let us one and all jointly guard ourselves, that we may keep this vestment of the body pure and may not, for practicing fornication and sensual indulgence or any other sin for a short season, lose the salvation of heaven but may inherit the eternal kingdom of God; of which may God, of his own grace, deem all of you worthy.

Source: Catechetical Lecture 18:20
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Sirach 23:18
We are always to walk becomingly, as in the day, and reject the works of darkness. We know that the night has been appointed for the rest of the body, not for carrying out some task or activity, and therefore it is at night that we pass into sleep and blissful oblivion. “We are not to be involved in feasting and drunkenness, in orgies and immodesty.” We should not say, “The darkness and the walls hide us, and goodness knows if the Most High will succeed in seeing us.” We are instead to love the light and be honest in our dealings, so that, like walking in the sunlight, we want our works to be resplendent in the presence of God.

Source: HEXAMERON 2:10.38
[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Sirach 23:22
The divine judgment condemns the adultery of both the husband and the wife in the same way, and the fruit of such unions is not pleasing to the Lord, nor can what has clearly been born of the contamination of sin please him. According to allegorical interpretation, the assembly of the heretics, or any soul that is deceived by heretical perversity, ceases to please God, since she has abandoned her first husband, the guide of her youth, who had united her to himself in the sacred bond of baptism and adorned her with the beauty of virtue. Ezekiel wrote very clearly on this: “She has united with another man,” that is, with the devil, “who has contaminated her with various errors, making her completely guilty.”

Source: ON ECCLESIASTICUS 10:11