The interpretation timeline

Sir 34:25

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

From the early Church Fathers to now.

Sir 34:25 · Douay-Rheims
“The bread of the needy, is the life of the poor: he that defraudeth them thereof, is a man of blood.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
430
A.D.
Augustine of Hippo Patristic
A.D. 354–430
“It was not Donatus of Carthage who established that Christians had to be rebaptized, as I thought when I responded to his letter. Nor is it true that he drew the words necessary for his purpose directly from an expression of Ecclesiasticus, where it is written, "If a person is baptized after touching a dead person and touches him again, what good was it for him to wash." He claims it reads, "If someone is baptized by a dead person, what good was it for him to wash?" We later ascertained that even before the Donatist party existed, many codices—mostly, to be honest, African—did not have in this context the words "and touches him again."”
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.