1 Whoever touches pitch will be contaminated by it. And whoever associates with the arrogant will be clothed by arrogance.
2 Whoever associates with those more honorable than himself sets a burden on himself. And so, you should have no fellowship with someone who is wealthier than you.
3 What will the cooking pot have in common with the earthen vessel? And when they collide with one another, one will be broken.
4 The rich man has suffered no injustice, and yet he fumes. But the poor man, though he has been wounded, will remain silent.
5 If you are generous, he will take you up; and when you have nothing, he will cast you aside.
6 If you possess, he will feast with you, and he will empty you, and he will not grieve over you.
7 If he has need of you, he will deceive you; and while smiling, he will give you hope. He will converse with you pleasantly, and he will say: “What is it that you need?”
8 And he will impress you with his foods, until he has drained you two or three times, and in the very end, he will ridicule you. And afterward, when he sees you, he will abandon you, and he will shake his head at you.
9 Humble yourself before God, and wait for his hands.
10 Be careful. Otherwise, having been seduced into foolishness, you will be humiliated.
11 Do not choose to be low in your wisdom, otherwise, having been brought low, you will be seduced into foolishness.
12 If you are invited by someone who is more powerful than you, you should decline. Otherwise, he will invite you all the more.
13 You cannot be rude to him, lest you be pushed away. And you cannot stray far from him, lest you be forgotten.
14 You cannot hold a discussion with him as with an equal. You should not trust his many words. For by much talking, he will probe you, and while smiling, he will question you about your secrets.
15 His cruel mind will store up your words; and he will not spare you from affliction, nor from prison.
16 Be cautious of yourself, and attend diligently to what you are hearing. For you are walking toward your own destruction.
17 Yet truly, while listening to these things, consider it as if it were a dream, and you will awaken.
18 Love God for your entire life, and call upon him for your salvation.
19 Every animal loves its own kind; so also every man loves those closest to himself.
20 All flesh will join with whatever is similar to itself, and every man will associate with whomever is similar to himself.
21 If a wolf would at any time have fellowship with a lamb, so also would a sinner have fellowship with the just.
22 What fellowship does a holy man have with a dog? Or what portion do the wealthy have with the poor?
23 In the desert, the wild donkey is the prey of the lion. So also are the poor the pasture of the rich.
24 And just as humility is an abomination to the arrogant, so also does the rich man abhor the poor man.
25 When a wealthy man has been shaken, he is strengthened by his friends. But when a lowly man has fallen, he is expelled even by those who know him well.
26 When a rich man has been deceived, many will help him recover; he has spoken arrogantly, and yet they justify him.
27 When a poor man has been deceived, in addition he is rebuked; he has spoken with understanding, and no place is given to him.
28 The rich man has spoken, and all remain silent, and they repeat his words, even to the clouds.
29 The poor man has spoken, and they say: “Who is this?” And if he stumbles, they will overthrow him.
30 Substance is good for him who has no sin on his conscience. And poverty is called very wicked by the mouth of the impious.
31 The heart of a man changes his face, either for better or for worse.
32 You will find, with difficulty and much labor, the sign of a good heart and a good face.
1 Blessed is the man who has not slipped because of a word from his mouth, and who has not been stung by grief because of an offense.
2 Happy is he who does not have sadness in his mind, and who has not fallen away from his hope.
3 Substance is senseless for a greedy and stingy man. And what would a spiteful man do with gold?
4 Whoever acquires unjustly, according to his own mind, gathers for others. For another will spend his goods lavishly.
5 Whoever is wicked to himself, to whom will he be good? For he will not take enjoyment in his own goods.
6 Whoever has ill will toward himself, nothing is more worthless than he is. But such is the reward of his wickedness.
7 And if he does good, he does it ignorantly and unwillingly. And in the very end, he realizes his own malice.
8 The eye of the spiteful man is wicked, and he averts his face and despises his own soul.
9 The eye of the greedy man is insatiable in his portion of iniquity. He will not be satisfied until he has consumed his own soul, withering it away.
10 An evil eye is directed at evil things. And he will not be satisfied by bread; instead, he will be needy and grieving at his own table.
11 Son, if you have anything, do good to yourself, and offer worthy oblations to God.
12 Remember that death has not been delayed, and that the covenant of the grave has been revealed to you. For the covenant of this world will pass away in death.
13 Do good to your friend before you die. And according to your ability, extend your hand and give to the poor.
14 Do not cheat yourself out of a good day, and do not let the smallest good gift pass you by.
15 Should you not leave it to others to divide your sorrows and labors by lot?
16 Give, and receive, and justify your soul.
17 Before your passing, accomplish justice. For in death, there is no food to be found.
18 All flesh grows old like the grass, and like the foliage that springs forth from a green tree.
19 Some spring up, and others fall away. Such is the generation of flesh and blood. One is finished, and another is born.
20 Every corruptible work will fail in the end. And its worker will go with it.
21 But every excellent work will be justified. And whoever worked it will be honored by it.
22 Blessed is the man who will abide in wisdom, and who will meditate on her righteousness, and who, in his mind, will consider the circumspection of God.
23 He considers her ways in his heart, and he finds understanding in her secrets. He goes after her like an investigator, and he is constant in her ways.
24 He gazes through her windows, and he listens at her door.
25 He rests next to her house, and, fastening a peg in her walls, he sets up his cottage by her hands. And so, good things will find rest in his cottage as time passes.
26 He will station his sons under her covering, and he will abide under her branches.
27 He will be protected by her covering from the heat, and he will rest in her glory.
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1 But the aforementioned Simon, who was a betrayer of the money and of his nation, spoke evil about Onias, as if he had instigated Heliodorus to do these things and as if he had been the inciter of evils.
2 And he dared to say that he was a traitor to the kingdom, though he provided for the city, and defended his people, and was zealous for the law of God.
3 But when the hostilities had proceeded to such an extent that even murders were committed by certain close associates of Simon,
4 Onias, considering the peril of this contention, and Apollonius to be mad, though he was governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, which only augmented the malice of Simon, he brought himself before the king,
5 not so as to be an accuser of a citizen, but in view of his own consideration for the common good of the entire multitude.
6 For he saw that, without royal providence, it would be impossible to provide peace to events, nor would Simon ever cease from his foolishness.
7 But after the life of Seleucus expired, when Antiochus, who was called the illustrious, had assumed the kingdom, Jason, the brother of Onias, was ambitions for the high priesthood.
8 He went to the king, promising him three hundred and sixty talents of silver, and from other revenues eighty talents,
9 and beyond these, he promised also one hundred and fifty more, if he would be granted the authority to establish a sports arena, and a school for boys, and to enroll those who were at Jerusalem as Antiochians.
10 When the king had assented, and he had obtained the leadership, he immediately began to transfer his subjects to the rituals of the heathens.
11 And taking away those things that had been established by the kings, by reason of the humanitarianism of the Jews, through John, the father of Eupolemus, who formed a friendship and alliance with the Romans, he discharged the legitimate legislations, voiding the oaths of the citizens, and he sanctioned depraved customs.
12 For he even had the audacity to set up, below the very stronghold, a sports arena, and to place all of the best adolescent boys in brothels.
13 Now this was not the beginning, but a certain increase and progression of heathenism and foreign practices, due to the nefarious and unheard of wickedness of the impious non-priest Jason,
14 so much so that now the priests were not devoted to the concerns of services at the altar, but, despising the temple and neglecting the sacrifices, they hurried to become participants of the wrestling school, and of its prohibited injustices, and of the training of the discus.
15 And, even holding the honors of their fathers to be nothing, they esteemed the glories of the Greeks as best.
16 For the sake of these, they held a dangerous competition, and were imitators of their practices, and so, in all things, they desired to be similar to those who had been their enemies and destroyers.
17 But acting impiously against the divine laws does not go unpunished, as these subsequent events will reveal.
18 But when the competition that was celebrated every fifth year was at Tyre, the king being present,
19 the villainous Jason sent sinful men from Jerusalem, carrying three hundred didrachmas of silver for the sacrifice of Hercules. But those who transported it asked that it might not be paid out for the sacrifices, because it was not needed, but might be used for other expenses.
20 So, even though this was offered by him who sent it for the sacrifice of Hercules, it was instead given over to the manufacture of Greek warships, because of those presenting it.
21 Then Apollonius, the son of Menestheus, was sent into Egypt because of the nobles of king Philometor of Ptolemy. But when Antiochus realized that he had been effectively alienated from the affairs of the kingdom, consulting his own interests, he started out from there and came to Joppa, and from there to Jerusalem.
22 And he was received magnificently by Jason and the city, and he entered with the lights of little torches and with praises. And from there he turned back with his army to Phoenicia.
23 And, after three years, Jason sent Menelaus, the brother of the above mentioned Simon, carrying money to the king, and bearing responses about essential matters.
24 And he, being recommended to the king, when he had magnified the appearance of his power, usurped the high priesthood for himself, outbidding Jason by three hundred talents of silver.
13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast protected me from my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise thee, for thou art fearfully magnified: wonderful are thy works, and my soul knoweth right well.
15 My bone is not hidden from thee, which thou hast made in secret: and my substance in the lower parts of the earth.
16 Thy eyes did see my imperfect being, and in thy book all shall be written: days shall be formed, and no one in them.
17 But to me thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honourable: their principality is exceedingly strengthened.
18 I will number them, and they shall be multiplied above the sand: I rose up and am still with thee.
19 If thou wilt kill the wicked, O God: ye men of blood, depart from me:
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. And everyone who loves God, who provides that birth, also loves him who has been born of God.
2 In this way, we know that we love those born of God: when we love God and do his commandments.
3 For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not heavy.
4 For all that is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world: our faith.
5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God!
6 This is the One who came by water and blood: Jesus Christ. Not by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit is the One who testifies that the Christ is the Truth.
7 For there are Three who give testimony in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. And these Three are One.
8 And there are three who give testimony on earth: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood. And these three are one.
9 If we accept the testimony of men, then the testimony of God is greater. For this is the testimony of God, which is greater: that he has testified about his Son.
10 Whoever believes in the Son of God, holds the testimony of God within himself. Whoever does not believe in the Son, makes him a liar, because he does not believe in the testimony which God has testified about his Son.
11 And this is the testimony which God has given to us: Eternal Life. And this Life is in his Son.
12 Whoever has the Son, has Life. Whoever does not have the Son, does not have Life.
13 I am writing this to you, so that you may know that you have Eternal Life: you who believe in the name of the Son of God.
14 And this is the confidence which we have toward God: that no matter what we shall request, in accord with his will, he hears us.
15 And we know that he hears us, no matter what we request; so we know that we can obtain the things that we request of him.
16 Anyone who realizes that his brother has sinned, with a sin that is not unto death, let him pray, and life shall be given to him who has sinned not unto death. There is a sin which is unto death. I am not saying that anyone should ask on behalf of that sin.
17 All that is iniquity is sin. But there is a sin unto death.
18 We know that everyone who is born of God does not sin. Instead, rebirth in God preserves him, and the evil one cannot touch him.
19 We know that we are of God, and that the entire world is established in wickedness.
20 And we know that the Son of God has arrived, and that he has given us understanding, so that we may know the true God, and so that we may remain in his true Son. This is the true God, and this is Eternal Life.
21 Little sons, keep yourselves from false worship. Amen.
