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Ecclesiasticus 20: What the Passage Says

64 claims across 32 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Ecclesiasticus 20 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter is a collection of sayings about speech: when to rebuke, when to keep quiet, and how the timing of words decides whether they are received. It repeats the pattern "there is... and there is..." to place opposite outcomes side by side, and it groups sayings about gifts, about lying, and about pleasing powerful men. It closes with sayings on hidden wisdom, on hiding folly, and on patience in seeking the Lord.

Claim by Claim

  1. 20:1
    • There is a reproof that is not fitting.
    • Some person keeps silent, and that person is wise.
  2. 20:2
    • It is much better to reprove than to be angry in secret.
    • The one who confesses his fault will be kept from harm.
  3. 20:3
    • It is good, when you are reproved, to show repentance.
    • By showing repentance you will escape deliberate sin.
  4. 20:4
    • The desire of a eunuch to take a virgin's virginity is like the one who carries out judgment by force.
  5. 20:5
    • There is one who keeps silent and is found to be wise.
    • There is another who becomes hateful by much talking.
  6. 20:6
    • Some person keeps silent because he has no answer to give.
    • Some person keeps silent because he knows the right time.
  7. 20:7
    • A wise man will keep silent until the right moment.
    • A boaster and a fool pay no attention to the right moment.
  8. 20:8
    • The one who uses many words will be detested.
    • The one who takes authority to himself in speaking will be hated.
  9. 20:9
    • There is a sinner who prospers in evil things.
    • There is a gain that turns into loss.
  10. 20:10
    • There is a gift that will not benefit you.
    • There is a gift whose repayment is double.
  11. 20:11
    • There is a humiliation that comes because of glory.
    • There is a man who lifts up his head from a lowly condition.
  12. 20:12
    • There is one who buys much for a little.
    • That one pays for it sevenfold.
  13. 20:13
    • A wise man makes himself loved by his words.
    • The pleasantries of fools will be poured out and wasted.
  14. 20:14
    • A fool's gift will do you no good when you have it.
    • The gift of the envious man is likewise no good, because of his grudging.
    • The envious man expects to receive many things in return for one.
  15. 20:15
    • He gives little and reproaches much.
    • He opens his mouth like a town crier.
    • Today he lends and tomorrow he demands it back.
    • Such a man is hateful to God and to people.
  16. 20:16
    • The fool says he has no friends.
    • The fool says he gets no thanks for all his good deeds.
    • The fool says that those who eat his bread speak evil of him.
  17. 20:17
    • He will be laughed at often and by many.
    • He does not rightly understand what it is to possess.
    • Having and not having are the same to him.
  18. 20:18
    • Slipping on a pavement is better than slipping with the tongue.
    • The downfall of the wicked will come quickly.
  19. 20:19
    • An ill-timed story will always be in the mouth of the ignorant.
  20. 20:20
    • A wise saying will be rejected when it comes from a fool's mouth.
    • The fool will not speak it at the right time.
  21. 20:21
    • There is a man who is kept from sinning by poverty.
    • When that man rests, he will not be troubled.
  22. 20:22
    • There is a man who destroys his own soul through shame.
    • By showing partiality to a person he destroys himself.
  23. 20:23
    • There is a man who out of shame makes a promise to his friend.
    • That man makes his friend his enemy for no reason.
  24. 20:24
    • A lie is an ugly stain on a person.
    • A lie is continually in the mouth of the uninstructed.
  25. 20:25
    • A thief is better than a man who habitually lies.
    • Both of them will inherit destruction.
  26. 20:26
    • The character of a liar is dishonorable.
    • His shame is with him continually.
  27. 20:27
    • A wise man advances himself to honor by his words.
    • A man of understanding will please the great.
  28. 20:28
    • The one who works his land will increase his heap of grain.
    • The one who pleases the great will obtain pardon for wrongdoing.
  29. 20:29
    • Presents and gifts blind the eyes of the wise.
    • Presents and gifts stop his mouth like a muzzle so he cannot reprove.
  30. 20:30
    • Hidden wisdom and hoarded treasure have no profit in them.
  31. 20:31
    • A man who hides his folly is better than a man who hides his wisdom.
  32. 20:32
    • Persistent patience in seeking the Lord is better than a man who drives his life without a guide.

Words Worth Explaining

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

20:1
Ecclesiasticus, also known as Sirach, is a book of wisdom teaching written in Hebrew around 180 BC by Jesus son of Sirach and translated into Greek by his grandson; the King James translators worked from the Greek. Chapters like this one are strings of separate sayings rather than a continuous argument, so one verse often has no connection to the next. "Comely" in 1611 English meant fitting or becoming, not good-looking.
20:2
Admitting your fault means saying out loud that you did wrong.
20:3
"Wilful sin" translates a Greek phrase for sin committed deliberately, as opposed to sin committed in ignorance. Ancient Jewish law treated the two very differently, with remedies available for the accidental offense that were not available for the deliberate one.
20:4
A eunuch was a castrated man. Eunuchs were common as servants and officials in royal households across the ancient Near East, precisely because they posed no sexual threat and could father no rival line. The saying turns on that: the desire is real but can never reach its object, and the same futility is being ascribed to the man who tries to produce justice by force.
20:7
A chatterer is a person who talks and talks without stopping.
20:8
The second half of the verse is compressed in the Greek and has been read two ways: as the man who seizes authority by talking, and as the man who claims the right to do all the talking. The rendering keeps the sense of a man appointing himself the voice in the room.
20:9
From here the chapter runs on the formula "There is... and there is...", a standard device of Hebrew wisdom writing. It sets two opposite outcomes side by side and leaves them there, without saying which one will apply in a given case.
20:11
Brought low means losing your important place. Sometimes honor comes first, and a fall comes after.
20:12
"Sevenfold" is a conventional round number in Hebrew idiom meaning fully or many times over, not a literal count of seven. The picture is of a bargain that looks cheap at the time and ends up costing far more than the price.
20:13
The King James "graces" translates a Greek word for charm or pleasing quality, the attractiveness of a person's speech. "Poured out" is the image of liquid spilled on the ground: gone, and of no use to anyone.
20:14
"The envious" renders a Greek word for the grudging or stingy man, literally one with an evil eye, a stock ancient expression for meanness rather than for magic. His gift is an investment: he expects a return larger than what he handed over. The Greek of this verse is difficult and its exact grammar is disputed.
20:15
A crier was a public announcer who stood in the street or marketplace and shouted news at the top of his voice. The comparison is about volume and publicity: he makes sure everyone hears about the small thing he gave.
20:16
To eat a man's bread meant to be his guest or his dependent. Sharing a meal in that world created a standing obligation of loyalty, so people who ate his bread and then spoke against him were breaking a real bond, which is why the complaint carries weight even in a fool's mouth.
20:18
"Pavement" in 1611 English meant a floor laid with stone or tile, the kind found in a courtyard or a well-off house, not a sidewalk. A polished stone floor was notoriously easy to slip on, and the point is that such a fall costs you nothing but a bruise.
20:21
"Want" in the King James means lack or poverty. The man in view is kept honest only by having no opportunity or no means. The second half says that when he rests, nothing gnaws at him: he has no guilt to lie awake over.
20:22
"Accepting of persons" is a fixed biblical phrase meaning showing partiality, deciding a matter by who the person in front of you is rather than by the merits of the case. Here it is the shy man's version of it: he cannot bring himself to say no to someone's face. "Soul" in the King James usually means the life or the self, not a separable spirit.
20:23
He is too shy to say no. So he promises something he cannot really give.
20:24
"Untaught" means without instruction or education. In a wisdom book this is not only about literacy; it means someone who has never been trained in how to conduct himself, which is exactly what a book like this claims to supply.
20:25
"Heritage" means inheritance, the thing handed down and permanently owned. The line is grim wordplay: what these two will pass on and possess is ruin.
20:27
"Great men" means the powerful: rulers, patrons, men of rank and wealth. In this society an ordinary man's prospects depended heavily on the favor of such a person, so the ability to speak well in their presence was a practical career skill, and the book treats it as one.
20:28
"His heap" is the pile of threshed grain on the threshing floor, the visible measure of a farmer's harvest and so of his year. The second half of the verse is compressed and has been read both straight, as advice that a patron's favor can cover a man's offenses, and as dry comment on how such favor works.
20:29
"Presents and gifts" here means bribes, particularly those offered to a judge or an arbitrator. Hebrew law repeatedly forbade them in exactly these words, saying that a gift blinds the eyes of the wise, and this verse is echoing that language.
20:30
With no banks, burying valuables in the ground or in a wall was the ordinary way to keep savings safe. The comparison is between money made useless by being hidden and wisdom made useless by being kept to oneself.
20:32
The King James text as printed here reads "seeking ing the Lord"; the doubled syllable is a printer's error for "seeking". This verse is missing from a number of Greek manuscripts and its wording varies among those that do have it.

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