Home

For Teaching

Ecclesiasticus 1: What the Passage Says

77 claims across 30 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Ecclesiasticus 1 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

This opening chapter says that all wisdom comes from the Lord, who created her before all things and poured her out on everything he made. It asks who can measure the sand, the rain, the sky, the earth and wisdom, and answers that there is one who is wise, the Lord on his throne. Most of the chapter praises the fear of the Lord, calling it the beginning, the fullness, the crown and the root of wisdom, and listing what it brings. It closes with warnings against rage, pride, pretending in front of others, and coming to God with a divided heart.

Claim by Claim

  1. 1:1
    • All wisdom comes from the Lord.
    • Wisdom is with the Lord forever.
  2. 1:2
    • No one can count the sand of the sea.
    • No one can count the drops of rain.
    • No one can count the days of eternity.
  3. 1:3
    • No one can find out the height of heaven.
    • No one can find out the breadth of the earth.
    • No one can find out the depth of the deep.
    • No one can find out wisdom.
  4. 1:4
    • Wisdom was created before all things.
    • Understanding of prudence exists from everlasting.
  5. 1:5
    • The word of God most high is the fountain of wisdom.
    • Wisdom's ways are everlasting commandments.
  6. 1:6
    • The root of wisdom has been revealed to no one.
    • No one has known wisdom's clever counsels.
  7. 1:7
    • The knowledge of wisdom has been made plain to no one.
    • No one has understood wisdom's great experience.
  8. 1:8
    • There is one who is wise.
    • That one is greatly to be feared.
    • That one is the Lord, sitting on his throne.
  9. 1:9
    • The Lord created wisdom.
    • The Lord saw wisdom.
    • The Lord counted wisdom.
    • The Lord poured wisdom out upon all his works.
  10. 1:10
    • Wisdom is with all flesh according to the Lord's gift.
    • The Lord has given wisdom to those who love him.
  11. 1:11
    • The fear of the Lord is honour.
    • The fear of the Lord is glory.
    • The fear of the Lord is gladness.
    • The fear of the Lord is a crown of rejoicing.
  12. 1:12
    • The fear of the Lord makes the heart glad.
    • The fear of the Lord gives joy.
    • The fear of the Lord gives gladness.
    • The fear of the Lord gives long life.
  13. 1:13
    • It will go well at the end for whoever fears the Lord.
    • Whoever fears the Lord will find favour on the day of his death.
  14. 1:14
    • To fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
    • Wisdom was created together with the faithful in the womb.
  15. 1:15
    • Wisdom has built an everlasting foundation among men.
    • Wisdom will remain with their offspring.
  16. 1:16
    • To fear the Lord is the fullness of wisdom.
    • The fear of the Lord fills men with wisdom's fruits.
  17. 1:17
    • Wisdom fills a man's whole house with desirable things.
    • Wisdom fills the storehouses with her produce.
  18. 1:18
    • The fear of the Lord is a crown of wisdom.
    • The fear of the Lord makes peace flourish.
    • The fear of the Lord makes perfect health flourish.
    • Peace and health are both gifts of God.
    • The fear of the Lord enlarges the rejoicing of those who love him.
  19. 1:19
    • Wisdom rains down skill and knowledge of understanding.
    • Wisdom exalts to honour those who hold her fast.
  20. 1:20
    • The root of wisdom is to fear the Lord.
    • The branches of wisdom are long life.
  21. 1:21
    • The fear of the Lord drives away sins.
    • Where the fear of the Lord is present, it turns away wrath.
  22. 1:22
    • An enraged man cannot be justified.
    • The force of his rage will be his downfall.
  23. 1:23
    • A patient man endures for a time.
    • Afterward joy springs up for the patient man.
  24. 1:24
    • A patient man conceals his words for a time.
    • The lips of many will declare his wisdom.
  25. 1:25
    • The parables of knowledge are in the treasuries of wisdom.
    • Godliness is an abomination to a sinner.
  26. 1:26
    • If you desire wisdom, keep the commandments.
    • If you keep the commandments, the Lord will give you wisdom.
  27. 1:27
    • The fear of the Lord is wisdom and instruction.
    • Faith and meekness are the Lord's delight.
  28. 1:28
    • Do not distrust the fear of the Lord when you are poor.
    • Do not come to the Lord with a divided heart.
  29. 1:29
    • Do not be a hypocrite in the sight of men.
    • Take careful heed of what you say.
  30. 1:30
    • Do not exalt yourself, or you will fall.
    • Exalting yourself brings dishonour on your soul.
    • God will uncover your hidden things.
    • God will cast you down in the midst of the assembly.
    • This happens because you did not come in truth to the fear of the Lord.
    • Your heart is full of deceit.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

1:1
Ecclesiasticus was written in Hebrew in Jerusalem around 180 BC by a teacher called Jesus son of Sirach, and translated into Greek by his grandson about fifty years later. The book is also known as Sirach, or Ben Sira. The Latin title Ecclesiasticus means something like "the church book," a name it picked up from its heavy use in teaching. The Greek translation is the text the King James follows.
1:2
Eternity means time with no end. Nobody can count sand, raindrops, or days that never stop coming.
1:3
"The deep" is the great body of water thought of as lying beneath the earth and stretching out past the horizon. It supplies the third unmeasurable dimension in the list: height above, breadth across, depth below.
1:4
"Created before all things" means wisdom was already there before the world was made.
1:5
This verse and verse 7 are missing from many Greek manuscripts of the book. The King James follows a longer Greek edition that includes them, which is why the verse numbering here does not always match modern translations of Sirach.
1:6
Wisdom is spoken of as "she" all through the chapter. The word is grammatically feminine in both Hebrew and Greek, and this book, like Proverbs, builds that grammar into a figure who can be looked for, held onto and lived with.
1:8
"Feared" here does not mean being scared, the way you fear a dog. It means deep respect for someone far greater than you.
1:9
"Numbered her" translates a verb for taking the full measure of something, counting it out. The four verbs run in sequence: God made wisdom, looked at her, measured her, then poured her out over everything he had made.
1:10
"All flesh" is an old way of saying every living person.
1:11
"The fear of the Lord" is the book's central phrase, and the fear in it is closer to awe than to fright: the reverence owed to someone of overwhelming rank, showing itself in obedience rather than in panic. The sense of standing before sheer power is not scrubbed out of it either. Also, the crown here is a wreath, the circlet of leaves or worked gold worn at a banquet or handed to the winner of a contest, not a king's crown. To be crowned is to be publicly honored and to be at a celebration.
1:13
"Find favour" means to be looked on with approval. In this book a life is summed up at its close, so the day of death is the point at which it is finally reckoned up: reputation intact, family secure, no disgrace at the end.
1:14
The Greek word behind "beginning" (archē) carries two senses at once: the starting point of a thing, and its governing principle or chief part. Both are at work here. Reverence is where wisdom starts, and it is also what wisdom rests on.
1:15
A foundation is the strong bottom part under a house. Everything else is built on top of it.
1:17
Storerooms held the grain brought in at harvest. A full storeroom meant the family would have food all year.
1:18
"Peace" translates a word covering far more than the absence of fighting: soundness, welfare, everything being in good order. Paired with "perfect health" it means bodily and general well-being together.
1:20
Here wisdom is drawn like a tree. It has roots deep down and branches high up.
1:21
This verse, like verses 5 and 7, is absent from many Greek manuscripts. Note also that the text does not say whose "wrath" is turned away. It may mean God's anger, or the anger of other people, or the person's own temper, which would connect it to the raging man of the next verse. The Greek leaves all three open.
1:22
In 1611 "justified" meant shown to be in the right, cleared in a dispute or before a court. It is a word about winning your case, not about a person's inner state. The point is that a man arguing in a fury cannot make his case stand up.
1:23
The King James here reads "tear," which is a long-standing printing oddity; other King James editions read "bear." The Greek verb means to hold out, to endure, to put up with something, which is what the rendering follows.
1:24
Hiding his words means holding back what he could say, staying silent while provoked, rather than keeping a secret. The reward comes when he finally does speak and others recognize the restraint as wisdom.
1:25
"Parables" translates a Greek word (parabolai) used for short proverbs, maxims and riddling sayings, the compressed one-liners a wisdom teacher collected and stored up. It does not mean the story-parables of the Gospels.
1:26
"The commandments" are the commands of the Law of Moses, the body of instruction contained in the first five books of the Bible.
1:27
"Instruction" translates paideia, a Greek word for the whole bringing-up of a child: teaching, training, discipline and correction taken together, not classroom lessons only. "Meekness" in 1611 English means gentleness and a refusal to push oneself forward, not weakness or timidity.
1:28
A "double heart" is a divided one, professing one thing while intending another. In this idiom the heart is the seat of thought, will and intention, the place where a person decides things, rather than the seat of feeling.
1:29
The Greek word behind "hypocrite" originally meant a stage actor, someone speaking lines in a mask. That theatrical sense is still audible here: the warning is against performing a part in front of an audience.
1:30
Three old usages in this verse. "Discover" in 1611 means uncover or expose, not find out. "Thy soul" here means yourself, your own life and standing, not an immaterial part of you. And "the congregation" is the assembled community gathered in one place, where a person's reputation was publicly made or destroyed.

Read Ecclesiasticus 1