The interpretation timeline

Sir 23:19

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

Sir 23:19 · Douay-Rheims
“Lest God forget thee in their sight, and thou, by thy daily custom, be infatuated and suffer reproach: and wish that thou hadst not been born, and curse the day of thy nativity.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
523
A.D.
Philoxenus of Mabbug Patristic
c. A.D. 450–523
“Remember thou then at all times that God looketh at thee, and do thou thyself also look at Him inwardly, even as He seeth thee inwardly, and sin shall not abide in thy thoughts. For as in the place whereupon the sun looketh darkness abideth not, even so in the soul upon which God looketh, and which itself also feeleth that He is regarding it, the darkness of wickedness remaineth not. "The eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the Sun," saith the Holy Book, "and He seeth all the works of the children of men." And in another place it saith, "All the deeds of men shine as the sun before Him, and He examineth and knoweth their ways." Now the prophet of God also rebuketh by his speech the wickedness of that man who is without the fear of God, and who upon the cushion of his couch acteth abominably, and rebuking his stupid thought that God could not see him, for God doth see him, he brought forward this proof saying, "The eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun," in order that he might teach every man that God seeth our secret things, and that we should take heed with all diligence against the sins which are wrought in secret. For thou shalt not sin in thy thought, neither shalt thou do wickedly in thy house in secret, because God seeth thee especially in these secret things. Immediately the sight of the children of men is turned away from thee, the sight of God receiveth thee; and when the children of men no longer look at thee as thou art, the Lord of what hath been formed observeth thee the more, for He knoweth that as long as man looketh upon thee that thou wilt be watchful against [doing] before them the deeds of shame, and that fear and shamefacedness of them will drive thee from the deeds of sin.”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.