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1 I will thank thee, O Lord and King, and praise thee, O God my Saviour: I do give praise unto thy name: 2 For thou art my defender and helper, and has preserved my body from destruction, and from the snare of the slanderous tongue, and from the lips that forge lies, and has been mine helper against mine adversaries: 3 And hast delivered me, according to the multitude of they mercies and greatness of thy name, from the teeth of them that were ready to devour me, and out of the hands of such as sought after my life, and from the manifold afflictions which I had; 4 From the choking of fire on every side, and from the midst of the fire which I kindled not; 5 From the depth of the belly of hell, from an unclean tongue, and from lying words. 6 By an accusation to the king from an unrighteous tongue my soul drew near even unto death, my life was near to the hell beneath. 7 They compassed me on every side, and there was no man to help me: I looked for the succour of men, but there was none. 8 Then thought I upon thy mercy, O Lord, and upon thy acts of old, how thou deliverest such as wait for thee, and savest them out of the hands of the enemies. 9 Then lifted I up my supplications from the earth, and prayed for deliverance from death. 10 I called upon the Lord, the Father of my Lord, that he would not leave me in the days of my trouble, and in the time of the proud, when there was no help. 11 I will praise thy name continually, and will sing praises with thanksgiving; and so my prayer was heard: 12 For thou savedst me from destruction, and deliveredst me from the evil time: therefore will I give thanks, and praise thee, and bless they name, O Lord. 13 When I was yet young, or ever I went abroad, I desired wisdom openly in my prayer. 14 I prayed for her before the temple, and will seek her out even to the end. 15 Even from the flower till the grape was ripe hath my heart delighted in her: my foot went the right way, from my youth up sought I after her. 16 I bowed down mine ear a little, and received her, and gat much learning. 17 I profited therein, therefore will I ascribe glory unto him that giveth me wisdom. 18 For I purposed to do after her, and earnestly I followed that which is good; so shall I not be confounded. 19 My soul hath wrestled with her, and in my doings I was exact: I stretched forth my hands to the heaven above, and bewailed my ignorances of her. 20 I directed my soul unto her, and I found her in pureness: I have had my heart joined with her from the beginning, therefore shall I not be foresaken. 21 My heart was troubled in seeking her: therefore have I gotten a good possession. 22 The Lord hath given me a tongue for my reward, and I will praise him therewith. 23 Draw near unto me, ye unlearned, and dwell in the house of learning. 24 Wherefore are ye slow, and what say ye to these things, seeing your souls are very thirsty? 25 I opened my mouth, and said, Buy her for yourselves without money. 26 Put your neck under the yoke, and let your soul receive instruction: she is hard at hand to find. 27 Behold with your eyes, how that I have but little labour, and have gotten unto me much rest. 28 Get learning with a great sum of money, and get much gold by her. 29 Let your soul rejoice in his mercy, and be not ashamed of his praise. 30 Work your work betimes, and in his time he will give you your reward. .
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[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Sirach 51:4
We read that this happened frequently in the passions of the martyrs. Like the three young men, who remained unhurt in the intense flames of the furnace, they also would not have suffered harm from the consuming flames. But since this has not been granted to all the martyrs of God, since many of them were burned bodily by the fire, though their souls arrived freely in the heavenly places, it is better to understand this fire and this flame as the intense heat of persecution, which, although it can afflict the saints of God for a little while, cannot go so far as to cause them to lose their souls.

Source: ON ECCLESIASTICUS 10:31
[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Sirach 51:14
After the prayer offered by the author of this book, speaking as the church, he tells how he had sought wisdom from his childhood, having asked it of the Lord. When he says that he sought wisdom before his youth, before the opportune time to ask, he shows to have desired it prior to the errors of childhood and adolescence, and even before his youth, and to have asked insistently that God would give it to him, promising to seek it always. Adolescence and youth are fraught with dangers, because the actions of the exterior person2 dominate, as Solomon says in the book of Proverbs, confessing that he does not know “the way of a youth in his adolescence,” and the prophet asks the Lord, “Do not recall the sins of my youth and of my ignorance.” For this reason philosophers, representing human life with the letter Y, assign the lefthand stroke to infancy and adolescence and the righthand stroke to the more mature age, when the intellect is more robust and rejects the earlier foolishness of the senses. In fact, this letter was first used by Pythagoras as an example of human life, in such a way that the bottom stroke, thinner than a comma, would indicate the uncertain condition of the earliest age, not yet given to either vice or virtue. The junction above it begins with adolescence, of which the right side is difficult but tends to a blessed life, and the left is easier but leads to perdition and death.

Source: ON ECCLESIASTICUS 10:31
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Sirach 51:23
The Word of God was directed to us. It was proclaimed to exhort us, as the Scripture says: “Receive instruction in the house of instruction.” Instruction is given so as to instruct, and the house of instruction is the church of Christ. Let us ask ourselves the object and purpose of this instruction: who is instructed, and who imparts the instruction. One learns to live well, and the purpose for which he learns to live well is so as to live forever. To this end Christians are taught, and Christ is the one who teaches.

Source: SERMON 399:1.1