The interpretation timeline

Sir 44:9

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

From the early Church Fathers to now.

Sir 44:9 · Douay-Rheims

“And there are some, of whom there is no memorial: who are perished, as if they had never been: and are become as if they had never been born, and their children with them.”

Medieval c. 750 – 1100

856

A.D.

Rabanus Maurus Medieval

c. A.D. 780–856

“The godless and sinners were not worthy of memory, because if the Scripture says something of them, it does so not to praise them but to blame. In the psalm it is written of them, "The fortresses of the enemy have been pulled down forever, the memory of the city you destroyed has disappeared. Their memory has disappeared with a roar." At the end of the world, in fact, to the devil's joy, those who it has been determined belong to his city will fall, and their memory will perish with a fantastic din when they go to eternal punishment.”

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.