Ecclesiasticus 38

¹Honour the physician for necessity: for the Highest hath created him.

²For all medicine is of God, & it shall receive gift of the king.

³The knowledge of the physician shall exalt his head, and in the sight of great men he shall be praised.

⁴The Highest hath created medicines of the earth, and a wise man will not abhor them.

⁵Was not bitter water made sweet by wood?

⁶The virtue of these things is come to the knowledge of men, and the Highest hath given knowledge to men, for to be honoured in his marvelous things.

⁷Curing with these things he shall mitigate pain, and the apothecary shall make confections of sweetness, and shall make ointments of health, and his works shall not be consummated.

⁸For the peace of God is upon the face of the earth.

⁹Son in thine infirmity contemn not thyself, but pray our Lord, and he will cure thee.

¹⁰Turn away from sin, and direct thy hands, and from all offence cleanse thy heart.

¹¹Give sweetness and a memorial of fine flour, and make a fat oblation, and give place to the physician.

¹²For our Lord created him: and let him not depart from thee, because his works be necessary.

¹³For there is a time when thou mayst fall into their hands:

¹⁴and they shall beseech our Lord, that he direct their rest, and healing; for their conversation.

¹⁵He that sinneth in his sight, that made him, shall fall into the hands of the physician.

¹⁶Son, upon the dead shed tears, and begin to weep as having suffered doleful things, and according to judgement cover his body, and neglect not his burial.

¹⁷But for detraction bear bitterly the mourning of him one day, and be comforted for the heaviness,

¹⁸and make mourning according to his desert one day, or two, because of detraction.

¹⁹For by heaviness death hasteneth, and it covereth the strength, and sorrow of the heart boweth the neck.

²⁰In abstraction sorrow is permanent: and the substance of the poor is according to his heart.

²¹Give not thine heart into heaviness, but expel it from thee: and remember the latter ends,

²²and forget not: for neither is there return, and him thou shalt profit nothing, and thou shalt hurt thyself.

²³Be mindful of my judgement: for thine also must be so: to me yesterday, and to thee today.

²⁴In the repose of the dead make the memory of him to rest, and comfort him in the departing of his spirit.

²⁵The wisdom of a scribe in the time of vacancy: and he that is less in action, shall receive wisdom.

²⁶With what wisdom shall he be replenished, that holdeth the plough, and glorieth in the goad, driveth oxen with the prickle, and converseth in their works, and his talk is in the breed of bulls?

²⁷He will give his heart to turn up furrows, and his watching in the feeding of kine.

²⁸So every craftsman and workmaster that passeth the night as the day, that maketh graven seals, and his continual diligence varieth the picture: he will give his heart to the similitude of the picture, and his watching will perfect the work.

²⁹So the ironsmith sitting by the anvil and considering the work of iron. The vapour of the fire will parch his flesh, and he striveth in the heat of the furnace:

³⁰The noise of the hammer reneweth his ear, and his eye is against the similitude of the vessel.

³¹He will give his heart to the finishing of the works, and his watching will polish to perfection.

³²So the potter sitting at his work, turning the wheel with his feet, who is always set in carefulness for his work, and all his working is in number:

³³With his arm he will fashion the clay, and before his feet he will bend his strength:

³⁴He will give his heart to finish the varnishing thereof, and his watching will make clean the furnace.

³⁵All these have hoped in their hands, and every one is wise in his own art.

³⁶Without these a city is not built.

³⁷And they shall not inhabit, nor walk therein, and they shall not leap high into the congregation.

³⁸Upon the judge's seat they shall not sit, and the ordinance of judgement they shall not understand, neither shall they declare discipline and judgement, and in parables they shall not be found:

³⁹but they shall confirm the creature of the world, and their prayer shall be in the work of their art, applying their soul, & searching in the law of the Highest.