Sirach 49

¹The memory of Josiah is like the composition of incense

prepared by the work of the perfumer.

It will be sweet as honey in every mouth,

and like music at a banquet of wine.

²He did what was right in the reforming of the people,

and took away the abominations of iniquity.

³He set his heart right toward the Lord.

In lawless days, he made godliness prevail.

⁴Except David, Hezekiah, and Josiah,

all were wicked,

because they abandoned the law of the Most High.

The kings of Judah came to an end.

⁵They gave their power to others,

and their glory to a foreign nation.

⁶They set the chosen city of the sanctuary on fire

and made her streets desolate, as it was written by the hand of Jeremiah.

⁷For they mistreated him;

yet he was sanctified in the womb to be a prophet,

to root out, to afflict, to destroy

and likewise to build and to plant.

⁸Ezekiel saw the vision of glory,

which God showed him on the chariot of the cherubim.

⁹For truly he remembered the enemies in rainstorm,

and to do good to those who directed their ways aright.

¹⁰Also of the twelve prophets,

may their bones flourish again out of their place.

He comforted the people of Jacob,

and delivered them by confident hope.

¹¹How shall we magnify Zerubbabel?

He was like a signet ring on the right hand.

¹²So was Jesus the son of Josedek,

who in their days built the house,

and exalted a people holy to the Lord,

prepared for everlasting glory.

¹³Also of Nehemiah the memory is great.

He raised up for us fallen walls,

set up the gates and bars,

and rebuilt our houses.

¹⁴No man was created upon the earth like Enoch,

for he was taken up from the earth.

¹⁵Nor was there a man born like Joseph,

a leader of his kindred, a supporter of the people.

Even his bones were cared for.

¹⁶Shem and Seth were honored among men,

but above every living thing in the creation was Adam.