⁹My son, when you are sick do not be negligent,
but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you.
¹⁰Give up your faults and direct your hands aright,
and cleanse your heart from all sin.
¹¹Offer a sweet-smelling sacrifice, and a memorial portion of fine flour,
and pour oil on your offering, as much as you can afford.
¹²And give the physician his place, for the Lord created him;
let him not leave you, for there is need of him.
¹³There is a time when success lies in the hands of physicians,
¹⁴for they too will pray to the Lord
that he should grant them success in diagnosis and in healing,
for the sake of preserving life.
¹⁵He who sins before his Maker,
may he fall into the care of a physician.

Mourning.  Sir.38.16-23

¹⁶My son, let your tears fall for the dead,
and as one who is suffering grievously begin the lament.
Lay out his body with the honour due him,
and do not neglect his burial.
¹⁷Let your weeping be bitter and your wailing fervent;
observe the mourning according to his merit,
for one day, or two, to avoid criticism;
then be comforted for your sorrow.
¹⁸For sorrow results in death,
and sorrow of heart saps one's strength.
¹⁹In calamity sorrow continues,
and the life of the poor man weighs down his heart.
²⁰Do not give your heart to sorrow;
drive it away, remembering the end of life.
²¹Do not forget, there is no coming back;
you do the dead no good, and you injure yourself.
²²"Remember my doom, for yours is like it:
yesterday it was mine, and today it is yours."
²³When the dead is at rest, let his remembrance cease,
and be comforted for him when his spirit is departed.

Scholars, artists, craftsmen.  Sir.38.24-39.11

²⁴The wisdom of the scribe depends on the opportunity of leisure;
and he who has little business may become wise.
²⁵How can he become wise who handles the plow,
and who glories in the shaft of a goad,
who drives oxen and is occupied with their work,
and whose talk is about bulls?
²⁶He sets his heart on plowing furrows,
and he is careful about fodder for the heifers.
²⁷So too is every craftsman and master workman
who labours by night as well as by day;
those who cut the signets of seals,
each is diligent in making a great variety;
he sets his heart on painting a lifelike image,
and he is careful to finish his work.
²⁸So too is the smith sitting by the anvil,
intent upon his handiwork in iron;
the breath of the fire melts his flesh,
and he wastes away in the heat of the furnace;
he inclines his ear to the sound of the hammer,
and his eyes are on the pattern of the object.
He sets his heart on finishing his handiwork,
and he is careful to complete its decoration.
²⁹So too is the potter sitting at his work
and turning the wheel with his feet;
he is always deeply concerned over his work,
and all his output is by number.
³⁰He moulds the clay with his arm
and makes it pliable with his feet;
he sets his heart to finish the glazing,
and he is careful to clean the furnace.
³¹All these rely upon their hands,
and each is skilful in his own work.
³²Without them a city cannot be established,
and men can neither sojourn nor live there.
³³Yet they are not sought out for the council of the people,
nor do they attain eminence in the public assembly.
They do not sit in the judge's seat,
nor do they understand the sentence of judgment;
they cannot expound discipline or judgment,
and they are not found using proverbs.
³⁴But they keep stable the fabric of the world,
and their prayer is in the practice of their trade.