Sirach 44 - Contemporary English Version Interconfessional Edition

A Song Praising Israel's Ancestors

¹ Sing the praises of our ancestors, those famous men who lived long ago.

² The Lord gave them honor and showed them his power from the very first.

³ Some of them were kings or were famous for their courage. Some gave wise advice or spoke messages from God.

⁴ There were leaders who made good decisions, who learned the wisdom passed down by our people, and who taught it to others.

⁵ Some of our ancestors wrote poetry or music;

⁶ others were rich and powerful, but lived in peace.

⁷ All these men were highly honored in their own time;

⁸ their reputations live on, and even today they still are praised.

⁹ Others of our people are best forgotten, as if they and their descendants had never been born.

¹⁰ But the ancestors we praise were faithful to God, and so we will remember their good deeds.

¹¹ Their good name has been handed down, generation by generation,

¹² to those who follow them in being faithful to their agreement with God. *

¹³ Their families will live on, and each new generation will honor these ancestors,

¹⁴ even though their bodies were long ago laid to rest.

¹⁵ Israel praises them, and other nations still tell about their wisdom.

Enoch

¹⁶ Enoch turned to the Lord and became an example for all time, and the Lord was so pleased that he took Enoch to heaven.

Noah

¹⁷ Noah was perfectly loyal to God. And so when God in his anger sent the flood to sweep humans from the earth, he spared Noah's life.

¹⁸ And God made an agreement with him— never again will such a flood destroy all living creatures.

Abraham

¹⁹ No one is more famous than Abraham, the great ancestor of many nations.

²⁰ He obeyed the Law of God Most High and made an agreement with God that left a mark on his body. And when tested by the Lord, Abraham remained faithful.

²¹ And so, the Lord promised that Abraham's descendants would be more numerous than the stars in the sky or specks of dust on earth. All nations would be blessed by his descendants, and they would be given land from sea to sea, and from the Euphrates River to the end of the earth. *

Isaac

²² God later made the same promise to Isaac, the son of Abraham. God's agreement and promise then came to Jacob— all people would be blessed by his descendants,

Jacob

²³ and God would bless him and give him land to be divided among the twelve tribes. One of Jacob's descendants was faithful to the Lord and pleasing to everyone;