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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!