When you will do good know to whom you do it; so shall you be thanked for your benefits. Do good to the godly man, and you shall find a recompence; and if not from him, yet from the most High. There can no good come to him that is always occupied in evil, nor to him that gives no alms. Give to the godly man, and help not a sinner. Do well to him that is lowly, but give not to the ungodly: hold back your bread, and give it not to him, lest he overmaster you thereby: for else you shall receive twice as much evil for all the good you shall have done to him. For the most High hates sinners, and will repay vengeance to the ungodly, and keeps them against the mighty day of their punishment. Give to the good, and help not the sinner. A friend can’t be known in prosperity: and an enemy can’t be hidden in adversity. In the prosperity of a man enemies will be grieved: but in his adversity even a friend will depart. Never trust your enemy: for like as iron rusts, so is his wickedness. Though he humble himself, and go crouching, yet take good heed and beware of him, and you shall be to him as if you had wiped a lookingglass, and you shall know that his rust has not been altogether wiped away. Set him not by you, lest, when he has overthrown you, he stand up in your place; neither let him sit at your right hand, lest he seek to take your seat, and you at the last remember my words, and be pricked therewith. Who will pity a charmer that is bitten with a serpent, or any such as come near wild beasts? So one that goes to a sinner, and is defiled with him in his sins, who will pity? For a while he will abide with you, but if you begin to fall, he will not wait. An enemy speaks sweetly with his lips, but in his heart he imagines how to throw you into a pit: he will weep with his eyes, but if he find opportunity, he will not be satisfied with blood. If adversity come upon you, you shall find him there first; and though he pretend to help you, yet shall he undermine you. He will shake his head, and clap his hands, and whisper much, and change his countenance.
Sirach 12
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