Honor for Physicians

1 Honor a physician according to your need with the honors due to him, for truly the Lord has created him.⁠a 2 For healing comes from the Most High, and he will receive a gift from the king. 3 The skill of the physician will lift up his head. He will be admired in the sight of important men. 4 The Lord created medicines out of the earth. A prudent man will not despise them.⁠b 5 Wasn’t water made sweet with wood, so that its power might be known?⁠c 6 He gave men skill so that he might be glorified in his marvelous works. 7 With them he heals and takes away pain. 8 With these, the pharmacist makes a mixture. God’s works won’t be brought to an end. From him, peace is on the face of the earth.

Seeking Healing

9 My son, in your sickness don’t be negligent, but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you.⁠d 10 Put away wrongdoing, and direct your hands in righteousness. Cleanse your heart from all sin. 11 Give a pleasant fragrance and a memorial of fine flour, and pour oil on your offering, according to your means. 12 Then make room to the physician, for truly the Lord has created him. Don’t let him leave you, for you need him. 13 There is a time when recovery is in their hands. 14 For they too will ask the Lord to make them successful in diagnosis and in healing for preserving life. 15 He who sins before his Maker, let him fall into the hands of the physician.

Mourning the Dead

16 My son, let your tears fall over the dead, and like someone in great pain, begin your lament. Wrap his body with due honor. Don’t neglect his burial. 17 Weep bitterly and wail passionately. Let your mourning be according to his merit, for one day or two, so that people do not speak evil of you, and then be comforted in your sorrow. 18 For death comes from sorrow. Sorrow of heart saps one’s strength. 19 In disaster, sorrow also remains. A poor man’s life is painful to the heart. 20 Don’t give your heart to sorrow. Put it away, remembering the end. 21 Don’t forget it, for there is no returning again. You do him no good, and you would harm yourself. 22 Remember his end, for yours will be like it: yesterday for him, and today for you. 23 When the dead person is at rest, let his remembrance rest. Be comforted for him when his spirit departs from him.⁠e

Craftsmen and the Scribe

24 A scribe gains wisdom from the opportunity for leisure. He who has little business can become wise. 25 How could he become wise who holds the plow, who glories in the shaft of the goad, who drives oxen and is occupied in their labors, and who mostly talks about bulls? 26 He will set his heart on turning his furrows. He stays awake to give his heifers their feed. 27 So it is with every craftsman and master artisan who spends his time by night as by day,⁠f those who cut engravings of signets. He works carefully to make great variety. He sets his heart to keep his portraits lifelike, and is careful to finish his work. 28 So too it is with the smith sitting by the anvil and considering the unworked iron. The smoke of the fire will wear away his flesh. He toils in the heat of the furnace. The noise of the hammer deafens his ear. His eyes are on the pattern of the object. He will set his heart on perfecting his works. He will be careful to decorate them perfectly. 29 So it is with the potter sitting at his work and turning the wheel around with his feet, who is always anxiously focused on his work. He produces his handiwork in quantity. 30 He will fashion the clay with his arm and will bend its strength in front of his feet. He will set his heart on finishing the glazing. He will be careful to clean the kiln.

31 All these put their trust in their hands. Each becomes skillful in his own work. 32 Without these no city would be inhabited. Men wouldn’t reside as foreigners or walk up and down there. 33 They won’t be sought out in the council of the people. They won’t rise high in the assembly. They won’t sit on the seat of the judge. They won’t understand the covenant of judgment. Neither will they declare instruction and judgment. They won’t be found where parables are. 34 But they will maintain the fabric of the age. Their prayer is in the handiwork of their craft. This is not so for someone who has devoted his soul and meditates in the law of the Most High.