Sirach 49

1 The memorial of Josiah is like the composition of incense Prepared by the work of the apothecary: It shall be sweet as honey in every mouth, And as music at a banquet of wine.

2 He behaved himself uprightly in the conversion of the people, And took away the abominations of iniquity.

3 He set his heart right toward the Lord; In the days of wicked men he made godliness to prevail.

4 Except David and Hezekiah and Josiah, All committed trespass: For they forsook the law of the Most High; The kings of Judah failed.

5 For they gave their power unto others, And their glory to a strange nation.

6 They set on fire the chosen city of the sanctuary, And made her streets desolate, as it was written by the hand of Jeremiah.

7 For they treated him ill; And yet he was sanctified in the womb to be a prophet, To root out, and to afflict, and to destroy; And in like manner to build and to plant.

8 It was Ezekiel who saw the vision of glory, Which God showed him upon the chariot of the cherubim.

9 For verily he remembered the enemies in storm, And to do good to them that directed their ways aright.

10 Also of the twelve prophets May the bones flourish again out of their place. And he comforted Jacob, And delivered them by confidence of hope.

11 How shall we magnify Zerubbabel? And he was as a signet on the right hand:

12 So was Jeshua the son of Jozadak: Who in their days built the house, And exalted a people holy to the Lord, Prepared for everlasting glory.

13 Also of Nehemiah the memorial is great; Who raised up for us the walls that were fallen, And set up the gates and bars, And raised up our homes again.

14 No man was created upon the earth such as was Enoch; For he was taken up from the earth.

15 Neither was there a man born like unto Joseph, A governor of his brethren, a stay of the people: Yea, his bones were visited.

16 Shem and Seth were glorified among men; And above every living thing in the creation is Adam.