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1 Of these things be not thou ashamed, and accept no person to sin thereby: 2 Of the law of the most High, and his covenant; and of judgment to justify the ungodly; 3 Of reckoning with thy partners and travellers; or of the gift of the heritage of friends; 4 Of exactness of balance and weights; or of getting much or little; 5 And of merchants' indifferent selling; of much correction of children; and to make the side of an evil servant to bleed. 6 Sure keeping is good, where an evil wife is; and shut up, where many hands are. 7 Deliver all things in number and weight; and put all in writing that thou givest out, or receivest in. 8 Be not ashamed to inform the unwise and foolish, and the extreme aged that contendeth with those that are young: thus shalt thou be truly learned, and approved of all men living. 9 The father waketh for the daughter, when no man knoweth; and the care for her taketh away sleep: when she is young, lest she pass away the flower of her age; and being married, lest she should be hated: 10 In her virginity, lest she should be defiled and gotten with child in her father's house; and having an husband, lest she should misbehave herself; and when she is married, lest she should be barren. 11 Keep a sure watch over a shameless daughter, lest she make thee a laughingstock to thine enemies, and a byword in the city, and a reproach among the people, and make thee ashamed before the multitude. 12 Behold not every body's beauty, and sit not in the midst of women. 13 For from garments cometh a moth, and from women wickedness. 14 Better is the churlishness of a man than a courteous woman, a woman, I say, which bringeth shame and reproach. 15 I will now remember the works of the Lord, and declare the things that I have seen: In the words of the Lord are his works. 16 The sun that giveth light looketh upon all things, and the work thereof is full of the glory of the Lord. 17 The Lord hath not given power to the saints to declare all his marvellous works, which the Almighty Lord firmly settled, that whatsoever is might be established for his glory. 18 He seeketh out the deep, and the heart, and considereth their crafty devices: for the Lord knoweth all that may be known, and he beholdeth the signs of the world. 19 He declareth the things that are past, and for to come, and revealeth the steps of hidden things. 20 No thought escapeth him, neither any word is hidden from him. 21 He hath garnished the excellent works of his wisdom, and he is from everlasting to everlasting: unto him may nothing be added, neither can he be diminished, and he hath no need of any counsellor. 22 Oh how desirable are all his works! and that a man may see even to a spark. 23 All these things live and remain for ever for all uses, and they are all obedient. 24 All things are double one against another: and he hath made nothing imperfect. 25 One thing establisheth the good or another: and who shall be filled with beholding his glory?
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[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Sirach 42:9
The enemy of holiness always presses virgins and troubles them, ready to devour them if someone wavers and falls. There are many insidious men, and beyond all this there is the fury of nature. She must prepare for a twofold war: one that attacks from the outside, and the other that disturbs within. Thus great is the fear of one who protects them, greater the danger and the anguish if something unwanted happens. If an enclosed daughter robs her father of sleep and anxiety for her keeps him awake over fear that she will be sterile or that she would age or no longer be loved, what would the suffering be of one who is worried not for these reasons but for other, much more serious ones? Here one does not refuse a man but Christ himself. Here sterility does not end in ignominy but in harm, in the ruin of the soul. “Every tree,” says the Scripture, “that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown in the fire.”

Source: ON THE PRIESTHOOD 3:317-18
[AD 484] Vigilius of Thapsus on Sirach 42:15
The apostle Paul, writing to the Hebrews about the Son, says, “Because he is the image of the invisible God and bears the seal of his being.” And also Jeremiah, the wisest of the prophets, speaks of the person of God the Father and says, “If they had remained in my being and listened to my word, I would have turned them from their wicked desires.” To make it understood that he had said this in reference to the Son, he adds, “Who has been in my being and has seen my word?” In fact, that the Word was the Son is affirmed by the prophet David, who said regarding the person of the Father, “My heart has spoken the good word.” And John the Evangelist, knowing that the Word was with the Father, that is, that from the beginning the Son was with the Father and that the Word has never been separated from the Father, put this at the beginning of his Gospel, his pronouncement, saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word.” In another passage the Scripture passed all of this down to us, saying, “The Word as the beginning of the work,” not because in the creation of the Word (that is, beginning from the creation of the Son) God began to make the other creatures, but because through the Word of God (that is, through the Son) all created things are known. It is for this reason that the prophet David sings, saying, “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made,” and, to show that the Holy Spirit participated in this, he continued, “And from the Spirit of his mouth derived their every virtue.”

Source: AGAINST THE ARIANS 2:19
[AD 399] Evagrius Ponticus on Sirach 42:24
Given that “all things are in pairs, the one opposite the other,” as Jesus the wise man says, receive what I send you according to the letter and according to the spirit, and consider that in every case the letter presupposes the intellect: without this, not even the letter would exist. Thus prayer also involves two ways, active and contemplative. And the same for numbers, which in an immediate way express quantity and in their deeper meaning quality.

Source: CHAPTERS ON PRAYER, PROLOGUE