Nor ever do thou repeat gossip to the betraying of another’s secret. If of such things thou art ashamed, shame thou shalt never feel, and thou shalt have all men’s good word besides.

And other dealings there are over which thou must never be abashed,✻ nor, through respect for any human person consent to wrong.

Such are, the law of the most High and his covenant; and right award, that gives the godless his due;

a matter between some partner of thine and strangers from far off, the apportioning of an inheritance among thy friends,

the trueness of weight and balance, profit overmuch or too little,

the exchange between buyer and seller, the strict punishing of children, the cudgelling of a wicked slave till he bleeds …

Thriftless wife if thou hast, seal is best.

Where many hands are at work, lock all away; part with nothing, till it be measured and weighed, and of all thy spending and receiving, written record kept …

Nor be thou abashed, when there is question of chastising reckless folly, and the complaints of old men against the young. So thou shalt shew prudence in all thy dealings, and win the good word of all.

Daughter to her father is ever hidden anxiety, a care that banishes sleep. Is she young? Then how if age creep on too soon? Is she wed? Then how if her husband should tire of her?

Is she maid? Then how if she were disgraced, and in her own father’s house brought to bed? Once more, is she wed? Then how if she were false to her husband? How if she prove barren?

Over wanton daughter of thine thou canst not keep watch too strict; else she will make thee the scorn of thy enemies, the talk of the city; strangers will point the finger at thee, and all the rabble know thy shame.

Gaze not on the beauty of human kind, nor occupy thyself much with women;

garment breeds moth, and woman wickedness in man.

Man’s wickedness is too strong for woman at her best;✻ and a woman that plays thee false brings thee only disgrace.

Recount we now what things the Lord has made; his visible creation be our theme; nothing he has fashioned but hangs on his word.

Just as yonder sun that looks down on all gives light to all, so the glory of the Lord shines through all his creation;

how should his faithful servants herald them enough, these marvels of his, enabled by divine omnipotence in that glory to endure?

Nothing is hidden from him, the deepest depths of earth or of man’s heart; he knows our most secret designs.

All knowledge is his; does he not hold the clue of eternity, making plain what has been and what is yet to be, laying bare the track of hidden things?

No thought of ours escapes him, never a whisper goes unheard.

How great the wisdom that so ordered all things, his wisdom who has neither beginning nor end; nothing may be added,

nothing taken away from them, nor needs he any man’s counsel.

How lovely is all he has made, how dazzling to look upon!✻

Changeless through the ages, all of it lives on, responsive to his calls.

All things he has made in pairs, balanced against one another; never a fault of symmetry;✻

to each one its own well-being assured. His glory contemplating, thou shalt never have thy fill.