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Concerning Physicians and Health

38Honour physicians for their services,
   for the Lord created them;
² for their gift of healing comes from the Most High,
   and they are rewarded by the king.
³ The skill of physicians makes them distinguished,
   and in the presence of the great they are admired.
⁴ The Lord created medicines out of the earth,
   and the sensible will not despise them.
⁵ Was not water made sweet with a tree
   in order that its^* power might be known?
⁶ And he gave skill to human beings
   that he^* might be glorified in his marvellous works.
⁷ By them the physician^* heals and takes away pain;
⁸   the pharmacist makes a mixture from them.
God’s^* works will never be finished;
   and from him health^* spreads over all the earth.

⁹ My child, when you are ill, do not delay,
   but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you.
¹⁰ Give up your faults and direct your hands rightly,
   and cleanse your heart from all sin.
¹¹ Offer a sweet-smelling sacrifice, and a memorial portion of choice flour,
   and pour oil on your offering, as much as you can afford.^*
12 Then give the physician his place, for the Lord created him;
   do not let him leave you, for you need him.
¹³ There may come a time when recovery lies in the hands of physicians,^*
14   for they too pray to the Lord
that he will grant them success in diagnosis^*
   and in healing, for the sake of preserving life.
¹⁵ He who sins against his Maker
   will be defiant towards the physician.^*

On Mourning for the Dead

¹⁶ My child, let your tears fall for the dead,
   and as one in great pain begin the lament.
Lay out the body with due ceremony,
   and do not neglect the burial.
¹⁷ Let your weeping be bitter and your wailing fervent;
   make your mourning worthy of the departed,
for one day, or two, to avoid criticism;
   then be comforted for your grief.
¹⁸ For grief may result in death,
   and a sorrowful heart saps one’s strength.
¹⁹ When a person is taken away, sorrow is over;
   but the life of the poor weighs down the heart.
²⁰ Do not give your heart to grief;
   drive it away, and remember your own end.
²¹ Do not forget, there is no coming back;
   you do the dead^* no good, and you injure yourself.
²² Remember his^* fate, for yours is like it;
   yesterday it was his,^* and today it is yours.
²³ When the dead is at rest, let his remembrance rest too,
   and be comforted for him when his spirit has departed.

Trades and Crafts

²⁴ The wisdom of the scribe depends on the opportunity of leisure;
   only the one who has little business can become wise.
²⁵ How can one become wise who handles the plough,
   and who glories in the shaft of a goad,
who drives oxen and is occupied with their work,
   and whose talk is about bulls?
²⁶ He sets his heart on ploughing furrows,
   and he is careful about fodder for the heifers.
²⁷ So it is with every artisan and master artisan
   who labours by night as well as by day;
those who cut the signets of seals,
   each is diligent in making a great variety;
they set their heart on painting a lifelike image,
   and they are careful to finish their work.
²⁸ So it is with the smith, sitting by the anvil,
   intent on his ironwork;
the breath of the fire melts his flesh,
   and he struggles with the heat of the furnace;
the sound of the hammer deafens his ears,^*
   and his eyes are on the pattern of the object.
He sets his heart on finishing his handiwork,
   and he is careful to complete its decoration.
²⁹ So it is with is the potter sitting at his work
   and turning the wheel with his feet;
he is always deeply concerned over his products,
   and he produces them in quantity.
³⁰ He moulds the clay with his arm
   and makes it pliable with his feet;
he sets his heart on finishing the glazing,
   and he takes care in firing^* the kiln.

³¹ All these rely on their hands,
   and all are skilful in their own work.
³² Without them no city can be inhabited,
   and wherever they live, they will not go hungry.^*
Yet they are not sought out for the council of the people,^*
33   nor do they attain eminence in the public assembly.
They do not sit in the judge’s seat,
   nor do they understand the decisions of the courts;
they cannot expound discipline or judgement,
   and they are not found among the rulers.^*
34 But they maintain the fabric of the world,
   and their concern is for^* the exercise of their trade.

The Activity of the Scribe

How different the one who devotes himself
   to the study of the law of the Most High!