Ecclesiasticus 21: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter is a collection of short sayings. It opens with warnings about sin, comparing it to a snake and a two-edged sword, and describing where the path of sinners ends. The rest sets the wise person against the fool, contrasting how each one takes instruction, speaks, laughs, and behaves at another person's house, and it closes with sayings about loose talk and whispering.

Claim by Claim

1. 21:1
   • The speaker addresses the hearer as his son.
   • The speaker asks whether the hearer has sinned.
   • The speaker tells him to sin no more.
   • The speaker tells him to ask pardon for his former sins.
2. 21:2
   • The hearer is told to flee from sin as from the face of a serpent.
   • If he comes too near to sin, it will bite him.
   • The teeth of sin are like the teeth of a lion.
   • The teeth of sin slay the souls of men.
3. 21:3
   • All iniquity is like a two-edged sword.
   • The wounds made by iniquity cannot be healed.
4. 21:4
   • Terrifying others and doing wrong will waste riches.
   • The house of proud men will be made desolate.
5. 21:5
   • A prayer out of a poor man's mouth reaches to the ears of God.
   • The poor man's judgment comes speedily.
6. 21:6
   • He who hates to be reproved is in the way of sinners.
   • He who fears the Lord will repent from his heart.
7. 21:7
   • An eloquent man is known far and near.
   • A man of understanding knows when he slips.
8. 21:8
   • He who builds his house with other men's money is like one who gathers stones for the tomb of his burial.
9. 21:9
   • The congregation of the wicked is like tow wrapped together.
   • The end of the wicked is a flame of fire to destroy them.
10. 21:10
    • The way of sinners is made smooth with stones.
    • At the end of the way of sinners is the pit of hell.
11. 21:11
    • He who keeps the law of the Lord gets the understanding of it.
    • The perfection of the fear of the Lord is wisdom.
12. 21:12
    • He who is not wise will not be taught.
    • There is a wisdom that multiplies bitterness.
13. 21:13
    • The knowledge of a wise man will abound like a flood.
    • The counsel of a wise man is like a pure fountain of life.
14. 21:14
    • The inner parts of a fool are like a broken vessel.
    • A fool will hold no knowledge as long as he lives.
15. 21:15
    • If a skilful man hears a wise word, he will commend it.
    • If a skilful man hears a wise word, he will add to it.
    • When a man of no understanding hears a wise word, it displeases him.
    • The man of no understanding casts the wise word behind his back.
16. 21:16
    • The talking of a fool is like a burden in the way.
    • Grace will be found in the lips of the wise.
17. 21:17
    • They enquire at the mouth of the wise man in the congregation.
    • They will ponder the wise man's words in their heart.
18. 21:18
    • Wisdom is to a fool as a house that is destroyed.
    • The knowledge of the unwise is talk without sense.
19. 21:19
    • Instruction is to fools as fetters on the feet.
    • Instruction is to fools like manacles on the right hand.
20. 21:20
    • A fool lifts up his voice with laughter.
    • A wise man scarcely smiles a little.
21. 21:21
    • Learning is to a wise man as an ornament of gold.
    • Learning is to a wise man like a bracelet upon his right arm.
22. 21:22
    • A foolish man's foot is soon in his neighbour's house.
    • A man of experience is ashamed of him.
23. 21:23
    • A fool will peep in at the door into the house.
    • He who is well nurtured will stand outside.
24. 21:24
    • It is rudeness in a man to listen at the door.
    • A wise man will be grieved with the disgrace.
25. 21:25
    • The lips of talkers will tell such things as do not pertain to them.
    • The words of those who have understanding are weighed in the balance.
26. 21:26
    • The heart of fools is in their mouth.
    • The mouth of the wise is in their heart.
27. 21:27
    • When the ungodly curses Satan, he curses his own soul.
28. 21:28
    • A whisperer defiles his own soul.
    • A whisperer is hated wherever he dwells.

Words Worth Explaining

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

21:1

"My son" is the standard way a teacher addresses a pupil in ancient wisdom writing. It does not mean the writer is speaking to his own child; it signals an older, experienced man instructing a younger one.

21:2

In this book "soul" normally means a person's life, or the person himself, rather than a separable part of him. "Slaying the souls of men" means sin destroys the people who come near it.

21:3

Most swords were sharp on one edge only. A sword sharp on both edges cut you whichever way it moved.

21:4

"House" here means a household: the family, its dependents and its standing across generations, not just the building. To be "made desolate" is for that line to be emptied out and come to nothing. The first half is compressed in the Greek and can be read two ways, either that terror and violence eat up the wealth of the man who uses them, or that they eat up the wealth of the people he preys on.

21:5

In this culture a poor man had no patron, no money for a bribe and little standing before a judge, so an appeal to God was his only recourse. "His judgment cometh speedily" is ambiguous: the judgment is most likely God's verdict, arriving quickly on the poor man's behalf.

21:6

"The fear of the Lord" is a set phrase in Hebrew wisdom writing. It means reverence toward God worked out in how a person lives, closer to awe than to fright.

21:7

KJV "An eloquent man" renders a Greek phrase meaning powerful with the tongue. "Knoweth when he slippeth" means he catches his own missteps in speech. The contrast is between a man everyone has heard of and a man who actually hears himself.

21:8

Tombs were cut from rock or built up out of stone, so a man stockpiling stones is gathering the materials of his own grave. Building "with other men's money" means building on borrowed or extorted funds.

21:9

"Tow" is the short, coarse fiber combed out of flax when it is prepared for spinning. It was kept as tinder because it catches light instantly, so a bundle of it is the most flammable thing in the house.

21:10

KJV "the pit of hell" renders the Greek word Hades, the underworld where the dead were thought to go. It is the place of the dead generally rather than specifically a place of punishment. "Made plain with stones" pictures a paved road: level, smooth, easy walking, as against a rough track.

21:11

"Perfection" in 1611 English means completion or full growth, not moral flawlessness. The line says that the fear of the Lord brought to its full development is wisdom.

21:12

The word behind "wise" here is closer to shrewd or clever than to good. It names a practical skill that can be turned either way, which is why the writer can speak in the same breath of "a wisdom which multiplieth bitterness".

21:13

A "fountain" in this idiom is a natural spring rising and running of itself, not a built fountain. In a dry country the difference between a live spring and a cistern of standing water was the difference between fresh water and stale.

21:14

Household storage jars were fired clay. A cracked one can look whole, holds nothing, and cannot be mended; it is thrown out.

21:15

"Casteth it behind his back" is an idiom for deliberate dismissal: throwing a thing away where you will not have to look at it again.

21:16

Travel was on foot and whatever you took you carried on your body, so an extra load was felt at every step. "Grace" in 1611 English here means gracefulness or charm, a quality that pleases the hearer, and not the later theological sense of divine favor.

21:17

The "congregation" is the assembly of the community, gathered to settle disputes and decide matters, a public meeting rather than a worship service. "They enquire at the mouth of" is an idiom for formally asking a man for his opinion or ruling.

21:19

"Doctrine" in 1611 English means teaching or instruction of any kind, not a body of required belief. "Fetters" are iron rings for the ankles and "manacles" the same for the wrists, both standard restraints for prisoners and slaves. The right hand is named because it is the working hand, so binding it makes a man useless.

21:21

Gold ornaments and arm bracelets were worn by men as visible marks of rank and honor. The picture deliberately reverses verse 19: the same right limb carries either a shackle or a bracelet, depending on how a man takes instruction.

21:22

Hospitality had strict rules: a visitor waited at the door to be received rather than walking in. KJV "a man of experience is ashamed of him" can also be read, as many translators take it, to mean that the experienced man would be ashamed to walk in himself. The Greek allows either.

21:23

"Well nurtured" in 1611 English means well brought up and trained in manners; it has nothing to do with feeding. To "stand without" is to stand outside.

21:24

"Rudeness" here carries its older sense of coarseness, the behavior of someone with no breeding. "Grieved with the disgrace" means the shamefulness of the act pains him, though the Greek leaves open whether he is pained at the thought of doing it himself or at seeing another do it.

21:25

"Weighed in the balance" refers to the two-pan scales of the market, used for weighing out goods and metal money. Measured speech is speech portioned out as carefully as a merchant's weight. KJV "The lips of talkers" follows one line of Greek manuscripts; others read "strangers" or outsiders, which shifts the sense from people who chatter to people who do not belong.

21:26

In ancient usage the heart is the seat of thought, memory and decision, not mainly of feeling. The saying is about where a man's thinking sits in relation to his speech.

21:27

The Greek word here is satanas, meaning an adversary or accuser. The KJV takes it as the devil, but it can equally mean a human enemy, and the line has been read both ways. "Curseth" means calling down harm on someone, not using foul language.

21:28

A "whisperer" is someone who passes damaging talk about others quietly and in private. "Defileth his own soul" borrows the language of ritual uncleanness, the condition that shut a person out of the sanctuary and of normal company until he was cleansed.