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1 The pride of the height, the clear firmament, the beauty of heaven, with his glorious shew; 2 The sun when it appeareth, declaring at his rising a marvellous instrument, the work of the most High: 3 At noon it parcheth the country, and who can abide the burning heat thereof? 4 A man blowing a furnace is in works of heat, but the sun burneth the mountains three times more; breathing out fiery vapours, and sending forth bright beams, it dimmeth the eyes. 5 Great is the Lord that made it; and at his commandment runneth hastily. 6 He made the moon also to serve in her season for a declaration of times, and a sign of the world. 7 From the moon is the sign of feasts, a light that decreaseth in her perfection. 8 The month is called after her name, increasing wonderfully in her changing, being an instrument of the armies above, shining in the firmament of heaven; 9 The beauty of heaven, the glory of the stars, an ornament giving light in the highest places of the Lord. 10 At the commandment of the Holy One they will stand in their order, and never faint in their watches. 11 Look upon the rainbow, and praise him that made it; very beautiful it is in the brightness thereof. 12 It compasseth the heaven about with a glorious circle, and the hands of the most High have bended it. 13 By his commandment he maketh the snow to fall aplace, and sendeth swiftly the lightnings of his judgment. 14 Through this the treasures are opened: and clouds fly forth as fowls. 15 By his great power he maketh the clouds firm, and the hailstones are broken small. 16 At his sight the mountains are shaken, and at his will the south wind bloweth. 17 The noise of the thunder maketh the earth to tremble: so doth the northern storm and the whirlwind: as birds flying he scattereth the snow, and the falling down thereof is as the lighting of grasshoppers: 18 The eye marvelleth at the beauty of the whiteness thereof, and the heart is astonished at the raining of it. 19 The hoarfrost also as salt he poureth on the earth, and being congealed, it lieth on the top of sharp stakes. 20 When the cold north wind bloweth, and the water is congealed into ice, it abideth upon every gathering together of water, and clotheth the water as with a breastplate. 21 It devoureth the mountains, and burneth the wilderness, and consumeth the grass as fire. 22 A present remedy of all is a mist coming speedily, a dew coming after heat refresheth. 23 By his counsel he appeaseth the deep, and planteth islands therein. 24 They that sail on the sea tell of the danger thereof; and when we hear it with our ears, we marvel thereat. 25 For therein be strange and wondrous works, variety of all kinds of beasts and whales created. 26 By him the end of them hath prosperous success, and by his word all things consist. 27 We may speak much, and yet come short: wherefore in sum, he is all. 28 How shall we be able to magnify him? for he is great above all his works. 29 The Lord is terrible and very great, and marvellous is his power. 30 When ye glorify the Lord, exalt him as much as ye can; for even yet will he far exceed: and when ye exalt him, put forth all your strength, and be not weary; for ye can never go far enough. 31 Who hath seen him, that he might tell us? and who can magnify him as he is? 32 There are yet hid greater things than these be, for we have seen but a few of his works. 33 For the Lord hath made all things; and to the godly hath he given wisdom.
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[AD 386] Cyril of Jerusalem on Sirach 43:2
How could anyone who lifts his eyes to the sun not admire the way in which it is regulated? When it first appears, it could in fact seem to be something of little account, whereas in reality it has a truly great power. It gives us light from its rising in the east until it sets in the west. When the psalmist says that it rises in the morning “like a bridegroom from his chamber,” he gives an image of its temperate rays that do not bother the eyes at its rising, because at its appearance “like a bridegroom,” we find it pleasant. Only when it directs its horses2 toward midday do we for the most part shelter ourselves from its burning rays. Note above all how it regulates itself, although it is not the sun itself that appoints the rule but him who gave it its course to follow. In the summer, rising, it lengthens the days so as to give people more time for work. In the winter, it shortens its course, not so as to lengthen the time of cold but so that, the nights being longer, it would cooperate with human beings, promoting their rest, and with the earth to make it fruitful. Note also the harmony with which the days balance each other. In the winter they are shorter and in the summer longer, in spring and autumn they accord with one other, seeking a similar length. The night is regulated in the same way. As the psalmist says, “One day to the next hands on the message, and night to night transmits the news.” Day and night, with their orderly procession, cry out in unison to heretics that there is no other God than the Creator of all things, who has given them rule and order.

Source: Catechetical Lecture 9:6
[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Sirach 43:8
After having discussed the sun, he rightly speaks also of the moon, because the church follows Christ, and as the moon is illuminated by the sun, in the same way the church is illuminated by Christ and established by his glory. Scripture recalls this in the psalm in which the prophet speaks in a mysterious way of the king and of the king’s son, saying, “He will endure as the sun, like the moon through all ages.” The sun, in fact, is the Word of the Father, the Son of God, the Christ who remains as God and man, one from two natures and in two natures distinct and perfect. Moreover, Christ remains before the moon, that is, before the church, which gazes on him always with the light of the heart. It is right to compare the moon with the church, since it does not have a splendor of its own but receives light from the sun in certain ways that astronomers accurately explain, along with other things. In the same way, the church is apportioned light from the true Creator. In time of persecution, the light diminishes. Then, with the return of peace, it becomes full again with the joy of the clearest light.

Source: ON ECCLESIASTICUS 9:7
[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Sirach 43:9
The beauty of the saints adorns the church. Those whom the most high Lord has ordained to enlighten the whole world with the preaching of the gospel and with the marks of the virtues await the judgment of God in holy words, that is, they attend with constancy to the doctrine of the true faith and are not broken by the adversities of this world. Nor do they let themselves be overcome by anger but endure all things with patience, continually caring for the flock entrusted to them, always diligently remembering in their hearts those words of the Lord, “Be ready, with your loins girded and your lamps lit. Be like those who await the master’s return from the wedding.” “Be ready, because in an hour you do not expect, the Son of man will come.” “By your perseverance you will save your souls.”

Source: ON ECCLESIASTICUS 9:7
[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Sirach 43:11
God almighty set the rainbow as a sign between himself and humanity, indicating that he would never again destroy the world with a flood. And this is why the rainbow has the color of both water and fire—in part light blue and in part red—so that it might testify to both judgments, to the one that is to come and to the one that has already taken place, since the world will be burned by fire and was once destroyed by the waters of the flood. For this reason we liken the rainbow to the Scripture of the New and the Old Testaments, since, in a certain way, it encircles the necks of the faithful with two curved parts. On this we read, “He has strung and aimed his bow,” and thus he gives a sweet yoke to to the faithful, but for rebels he proclaims himself to be a fearsome weapon. The rainbow is very beautiful in its brilliance, because the sense and intelligence of sacred Scripture are magnificent. “It encircles the heavens with a ring of glory,” because it speaks abundantly of the highest things and of the lowest.

Source: ON ECCLESIASTICUS 9:7
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Sirach 43:20
We have been commanded to be fervent in spirit, and this shows that the Word of God is a blazing fire. And Jeremiah hears from the one who gave him oracles, “Look, I have put my words in your mouth, a fire.” Therefore, since God is fire, the angels are flames of fire, and the saints should be fervent in the spirit of God. They have without a doubt cooled in their love for him and have become cold. Indeed, the Lord says that “increasing iniquity, the love of many will grow cold.” And all those beings that symbolize the contrary power in sacred Scripture are always cold. The devil, in fact, is called a serpent and a dragon: what is colder than these? It is said that the dragon rules in the waters, and this is also said of one of the evil spirits that the prophet says dwells in the sea. And elsewhere the prophet says, “He will strike with the holy sword the serpent dragon that flees—the dragon, the perverse serpent—and he will kill him.” And in another passage, “Even if they depart from before my eyes and flee into the depths of the sea, I will command the dragon, and he will bite them.” And in Job this creature is called king of all the beings that are in the water. The prophet announces that evils come from the north, and especially those that inhabit the earth. And the north wind is indicated as cold in the Scriptures, as is written in Wisdom, “icy north wind.” Without question, we must refer this to the devil.

Source: ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2:8.3
[AD 379] Basil of Caesarea on Sirach 43:30
You expect to be glorified with Christ (“If we suffer with him, we will also be glorified with him”). You would not, however, glorify the Spirit of holiness along with Christ, as though he were not worthy to have the same honors that you have. You hope to reign with Christ, but you insult the Spirit of grace, relegating him to the rank of a slave and a servant. And I say these things not to show all that is due to the Spirit in glorification but to confound the bad faith of those who do not concede it to him, fleeing as impious the communion of the glory of the Spirit with the Son and with the Father. Who could allow these things to happen without weeping? Is it not obvious, to the point where even a child could understand it, that the present state presages the abandonment of the faith that threatens us? Incontestable things become doubtful. We believe in the Spirit and oppose him precisely in our professions of faith. We are baptized and still fight. We invoke him as the author of life, yet we despise him as a companion in slavery. We received him with the Father and the Son, and we dishonor him as if he were part of the creation. Those who do not know what to ask for in prayer, if they are moved to express something sacred regarding the Spirit, limit the flow of their words to maintain measure, as though they had already given him enough honor. One should mourn their weakness; we, however, do not have words to express thanks for all the gifts of which we experience the effects. The Spirit in fact surpasses all knowledge19 and thwarts the possibility of any speech that fails to conform to at least a minimum of his dignity, according to the words of the book called Wisdom: “Exalt him as you can, because he is higher still. In exalting him, you will increase your strength. Do not grow weary; otherwise you will not reach him.”

Source: ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 28:70
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Sirach 43:31
Indeed, with what understanding can a person apprehend God when he does not even apprehend that very intellect of his own by which he wants to know God? And if he does already understand this, let him diligently consider then that there is nothing better in his nature than his intellect. Let him see, then, if he discovers in it any features of form, brilliance of colors, spatial broadness, distance of parts, extension of mass, spatial dislocation, or anything else of this kind. Certainly we find nothing of this sort in that which is best in us, that is, in our intellect, with which we attain wisdom to the extent we are able. So then, what we do not find in what is best in us, we must not look for in him who is much better than what is best in us. We conceive, therefore—if we can and to the extent we can—of good without quality, greatness without quantity, creator without necessity, in the first place without location, containing all things but without exteriority, entirely present everywhere without place, eternal without time, author of changeable things while remaining absolutely unchanged and foreign to all passivity. Whoever conceives of God in this way, though he still cannot discover perfectly what he is, at least avoids, with pious diligence and to the extent possible, attributing to him what he is not.

Source: ON THE TRINITY 5:1.2