Ecclesiasticus 1:33
Son, if thou desire wisdom, keep justice, and God will give her to thee.
Open Ecclesiasticus 1:33 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Fili, concupiscens sapientiam, conserva justitiam, et Deus præbebit illam tibi.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Verse numbering differs here, so nothing is shown rather than the wrong verse.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine Reply to Faustus the Manichæan, Faustus states his objections to the morality of the law and the prophets, and Augustin seeks by the application of the type and the allegory to explain away the moral difficulties of the Old Testament
53. To this purpose it is written: "Thou hast desired wisdom; keep the commandments, and the Lord shall give it thee." The commandments are those concerning righteousness, and the righteousness is that which is by faith, surrounded with the uncertainty of temptations; so that understanding is the reward of a pious belief of what is not yet understood. The meaning I have given to these words, "Thou hast desired wisdom; keep the commandments, and the Lord shall give it thee," I find also in the passage, "Unless ye believe, ye shall not understand;" showing that as righteousness is by faith, understanding comes by wisdom. Accordingly, in the case of those who eagerly demand evident truth, we must not condemn the desire, but regulate it, so that beginning with faith it may proceed to the desired end through good works. The life of virtue is one of toil; the end desired is unclouded wisdom. …