Repeat not the word which thou hast heard, and disclose not the thing that is secret; so shalt thou be truly without confusion, and shall find favour before all men: be not ashamed of any of these things, and accept no person to sin thereby:
2 Of the law of the most High, and of his covenant, and of judgment to justify the ungodly:
3 Of the affair of companions and travellers, and of the gift of the inheritance of friends:
4 Of exactness of balance and weights, of getting much or little:
5 Of the corruption of buying, and of merchants, and of much correction of children, and to make the side of a wicked slave to bleed.
6 Sure keeping is good over a wicked wife.
7 Where there are many hands, shut up, and 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 aged, that are judged I by young men: and thou shalt be well instructed in all things, and well approved in the sight of all men living.
9 The father waketh for the daughter when no man knoweth, and the care for her taketh away his sleep, when she is young, lest she pass away the flower of her age, and when she is married, lest she should be hateful:
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10 In her virginity, lest she should be corrupted, and be found with child in her father’s house: and having a husband, lest she should misbehave herself, or at the least become barren.
11 Keep a sure watch over a shameless daughter: lest at any time she make thee become a laughingstock to thy enemies, and a byword in the city, and a reproach among the people, and she make thee ashamed before all the multitude.
12 Behold not everybody’s beauty: and tarry not among women.
13 For from garments cometh a moth, and from a woman the iniquity of a man.
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14 For better is the iniquity of a man, than a woman doing a good turn, and a woman bringing shame and reproach.
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15 I will now remember the works of the Lord, and I will declare the things I have seen. By the words of the Lord are his works.
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16 The sun giving light hath looked upon all things, and full of the glory of the Lord is his work.
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17 Hath not the Lord made the saints to declare all his wonderful works, which the Lord Almighty hath firmly settled to be established for his glory?
18 He hath searched out the deep, and the heart of men: and considered their crafty devices.
19 For the Lord knoweth all knowledge, and hath beheld the signs of the world, he declareth the things that are past, and the things that are to come, and revealeth the traces of hidden things.
20 No thought escapeth him, and no word can hide itself from him.
21 He hath beautified the glorious works of his wisdom: and he Is from eternity to eternity, and to him nothing may be added,
22 Nor can he be diminished, and he hath no need of any counsellor.
23 O how desirable are all his works, and what we can know is but as a spark!
24 All these things live, and remain for ever, and for every use all things obey him.
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25 All things are double, one against another, and he hath made nothing defective.
26 He hath established the good things of every one. And who shall be filled with beholding his glory?
John Chrysostom
“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."”
Bonaventure
“"From a garment comes the moth, and from a woman the iniquity of a man." If we wish to be most precious, we must cling to the price of the most valiant woman, the incorrupt, most obedient, and most loving Virgin. That woman, namely Eve, expels us from paradise and sells us; this one leads us back and redeems us.”
Bonaventure
“Some have compassion on their flesh, not on their soul. "The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children." Such a one is not like the Virgin nor like Christ. "He boils his children" who has no compassion on his own soul, but exposes it to the fire of concupiscence and of infernal torments. Of such a woman it is said: "Better is the iniquity of a man than a woman doing good": you cannot afflict the body too much. Let us not give our body to sin.”
Vigilius of Thapsus
“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."”
Bonaventure
“Let us take an example in the sun, which signifies in turn the Trinity, the wisdom of the Exemplar, the angelical order, and the Church Triumphant. The reference to the Trinity is found in Ecclesiasticus: "As the rising sun is clear to all, so the glory of the Lord shines upon all His works." The sun has substance, brilliance, and heat: likewise God has the originating principle, the Father; the brilliance, the Son; and the heat, the Holy Spirit. Yet it is the same sun in the sky as regards substance, in the eye as regards light, and in the body as regards heat. This is how a certain blind man was convinced who at one time had seen the sun and stood in the sun, and yet could not understand the Trinity of God.”
Evagrius Ponticus
“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.”