Sirach
As found in the Greek Septuagint
GNB
Chapter 13
Be Careful in Choosing Friends (continued from chapter 11)
Sirach 13:1 If you touch tar, it will stick to you, and if you keep company with arrogant people, you will come to be just like them.
Sirach 13:2 Don't try to lift something to heavy for you, and don't keep company with people who are richer and more powerful than you. You cannot keep a clay pot next to an iron kettle; the pot will break if it hits the kettle.
Sirach 13:3 If a rich person wrongs someone, he can afford to add insult to injury; but if a poor person is wronged, he is forced to apologize for himself.
Sirach 13:4 A rich person will use you as long as he can profit from it, but when you need him, he will leave you helpless.
Sirach 13:5 He will live with you as long as you have anything and will gladly drain you dry.
Sirach 13:6 If he needs you, he will trick you with his smiles and cheerful, kindly words. "Do you need anything?" he will ask.
Sirach 13:7 He will feed you until you are embarrassed. Finally, when he has drained you two or three times over, he will laugh at you. If you see him later, he will pretend he doesn't know you, and will pass you by.
Sirach 13:8 Be careful not to be misled; you can be enjoying yourself and suddenly find yourself humiliated.
Sirach 13:9 If you are invited to the home of someone influential, be reserved in your behavior. Then he will invite you more often.
Sirach 13:10 If you push yourself on him, he will put you in your place. On the other hand, if you keep your distance from him, he will forget about you.
Sirach 13:11 Don't pretend to be his equal or trust everything he says. In spite of all of his long and polite conversation, he is testing you.
Sirach 13:12 If a person does not keep confidence, he is cruel; he will not hesitate to hurt you or have you put in jail.
Sirach 13:13 Keep your secrets to yourself and be very careful, for you are always walking on dangerous ground.
Sirach 13:15 Every creature prefers its own kind, and people are no different.
Sirach 13:16 Just as animals of the same species flock together, so people keep company with people like themselves.
Sirach 13:17 A sinner has no more in common with a devout person than a wolf has with a lamb.
Sirach 13:18 Rich people have no more in common with the poor people than hyenas have with dogs.
Sirach 13:19 The rich hunt down the poor just as lions hunt down wild donkeys in the open country.
Sirach 13:20 Arrogant people have nothing but scorn for the humble, and the rich think of the poor in the same way.
Sirach 13:21 When a rich person stumbles, his friends will steady him, but if a poor person falls, his friends will have nothing to do with him.
Sirach 13:22 When someone rich makes a mistake, there are many people to cover up for him and explain away all the things he never should have said. But let someone poor make a mistake, and he gets nothing but criticism.
Sirach 13:23 When a rich person speaks, everyone is silent, and they praise him to the skies for what he says. But let a poor person speak, and everybody says, "Who is that?" They push him down if he so much as stumbles.
Sirach 13:24 There is nothing wrong with being rich if you haven't sinned to get that way. But there is nothing sinful about being poor, either. Only the ungodly think so.
Sirach 13:25 It's what is in your heart that makes the expression on your face happy or sad.
Sirach 13:26 If you feel cheerful, you will look cheerful, although making up proverbs calls for some intense thought.