Ecclesiasticus 22: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter is a set of proverbs. It opens with sayings about the lazy man and about children who bring shame or credit to their parents, then turns to a long stretch on the fool: teaching him, mourning him, and the weight of his company. The last part deals with the steady heart, with how friendship is broken and when it can be mended, and with staying loyal to a neighbor in poverty. It closes with a wish for a guard over the speaker's own mouth.

Claim by Claim

1. 22:1
   • A slothful man is likened to a stone that has been befouled.
   • Everyone will hiss at him because of his disgrace.
2. 22:2
   • A slothful man is likened to a lump of dung.
   • Everyone who picks it up will shake it off his hand.
3. 22:3
   • An ill-bred son is a disgrace to the father who begot him.
   • A foolish daughter is born to her father's loss.
4. 22:4
   • A sensible daughter will obtain a husband as her inheritance.
   • A daughter who behaves shamefully is a grief to the one who begot her.
5. 22:5
   • A bold daughter shames both her father and her husband.
   • Both her father and her husband will despise her.
6. 22:6
   • A story told at the wrong time is like music during mourning.
   • Beatings and instruction are wisdom at every time.
7. 22:7
   • Teaching a fool is like gluing a broken potsherd back together.
   • Teaching a fool is like waking a man out of deep sleep.
8. 22:8
   • Telling a story to a fool is like telling it to a man who is drowsing.
   • At the end of the telling the fool will ask what it was about.
9. 22:9
   • If children live honorably and have the means, they will cover over the low condition of their parents.
10. 22:10
    • Children who are haughty through contempt and lack of upbringing stain the nobility of their family.
11. 22:11
    • Weep for the dead man, because he has left the light.
    • Weep for the fool, because he lacks understanding.
    • Weep more gently for the dead man, because he has come to rest.
    • The life of the fool is worse than death.
12. 22:12
    • Mourning for a dead man lasts seven days.
    • Mourning for a fool and an ungodly man lasts all the days of his life.
13. 22:13
    • Do not talk much with a senseless man.
    • Do not go to a man who has no understanding.
    • Guard yourself against him so that you do not have trouble.
    • You will never be defiled by his outbursts.
    • Turn away from him and you will find rest.
    • You will not be wearied by his madness.
14. 22:14
    • The question is asked what is heavier than lead.
    • The answer given is that its name is a fool.
15. 22:15
    • Sand, salt, and a lump of iron are easier to bear than a man without understanding.
16. 22:16
    • Timber framed and bound into a building is not loosened by an earthquake.
    • A heart settled by deliberate counsel will not be afraid at any time.
17. 22:17
    • A heart resting on an understanding purpose is like a smooth plastering on a wall.
18. 22:18
    • Stakes set on a high place will not stand against the wind.
    • A fearful heart within a fool's imagination will not stand against any fear.
19. 22:19
    • He who jabs the eye brings down tears.
    • He who jabs the heart brings out its feeling.
20. 22:20
    • He who throws a stone at birds drives them away.
    • He who reproaches his friend dissolves the friendship.
21. 22:21
    • If you have drawn a sword against a friend, do not despair.
    • There is a way back to favor.
22. 22:22
    • If you have opened your mouth against a friend, do not be afraid.
    • There can be a reconciliation.
    • Reviling is an exception.
    • Pride is an exception.
    • Disclosing a secret is an exception.
    • A treacherous wound is an exception.
    • For these things every friend will depart.
23. 22:23
    • Keep faith with your neighbor in his poverty, so that you may share his joy in his prosperity.
    • Stay steadfast with him in the time of his affliction, so that you may be his heir when he inherits.
    • A poor man's condition is not always to be despised.
    • A rich man who is foolish is not to be admired.
24. 22:24
    • Vapor and smoke from a furnace go before the fire.
    • Reviling goes before bloodshed.
25. 22:25
    • The speaker says he will not be ashamed to shelter a friend.
    • The speaker says he will not hide himself from him.
26. 22:26
    • If evil comes to the speaker because of that friend, everyone who hears of it will beware of him.
27. 22:27
    • The speaker asks who will set a guard over his mouth.
    • The speaker asks who will set a seal of cunning upon his lips.
    • The purpose is that he may not fall by them.
    • The purpose is that his tongue may not destroy him.

Words Worth Explaining

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

22:1

Hissing was a public gesture of contempt, the ancient equivalent of booing someone off the stage. The Greek word behind "filthy" means smeared or befouled, and the picture is of a stone so dirty that anyone who touches it flings it away; some readers have taken it for a stone used for wiping after relieving oneself.

22:2

"Shake his hand" is not a handshake. It means shake the muck off his hand in disgust, the way you would flick something foul from your fingers.

22:3

"Nurture" in the King James means upbringing and training, including discipline, not affection; "evilnurtured" is badly brought up. A daughter is "born to his loss" because a father had to provide a dowry for her and she then left his household for her husband's, so in purely economic terms a daughter cost him and a son did not.

22:4

The Greek here can be read two ways, and translators differ. It may mean that a sensible daughter brings her husband a dowry and so an inheritance, or that a sensible daughter obtains a husband as her own portion in life. The King James takes the first; the second is at least as old.

22:5

"Bold" in 1611 English here means brazen or shameless, forward in a way that invited gossip. It does not mean brave.

22:6

Mourning in this culture was formal and public, with set days, wailing, and dirges, so cheerful music during it was a jarring intrusion; the proverb is about timing, not about music. "Stripes" are strokes of a rod or lash. Beating as part of a father's or a teacher's training was simply assumed here.

22:7

Pots were made of clay and baked hard. When one broke, the pieces would not stick back together.

22:9

The Greek manuscripts of this book differ in length, and some copies carry extra lines that others lack. As a result the verse numbers in this chapter do not always line up with those in other modern translations.

22:11

"He hath lost the light" means he has died. The dead were pictured as going down to a place where no light reaches, so seeing the light and being alive were the same thing.

22:12

Seven days was the fixed span of formal mourning for the dead, the period observed for Jacob in Genesis 50:10 and for Judith's husband in Judith 16:24. The saying works by contrast: the fool gets a lifetime of what the dead man gets for a week.

22:13

"Defiled" is the language of ritual uncleanness, a contamination picked up by contact and needing to be washed off. The claim is that a fool's company rubs off on you the way dirt does. "Madness" here means senseless, uncontrolled behavior rather than a medical condition.

22:14

This is a riddle, a question paired with its own answer, a standard teaching device in wisdom writing. Lead was the heaviest metal in ordinary use, so it was the common byword for weight.

22:16

Walls of the period were built with timbers bonded into the masonry and strapped together, a frame that held the structure rigid when the ground shook. The comparison is to that joinery, not to a loose stack of beams.

22:17

Interior walls were finished with smooth lime plaster, which cracked and fell away if badly laid and held for generations if laid well. A "gallery" here is a covered walkway or colonnade, the sort of public space whose finish people would notice.

22:18

"Pales" are pointed stakes driven into the ground to make a fence. "High place" here means simply a hilltop or exposed ridge, not the hilltop shrine that the same phrase refers to elsewhere in the Bible; the point is that light fencing on open high ground blows flat.

22:19

A proverb in two matched halves: press on the eye and it waters, press on the heart and it gives up what it is really holding. "Sheweth her knowledge" means the heart reveals what it actually thinks, brought out under the pain.

22:20

To reproach or upbraid a friend is to throw his faults in his face, usually in front of others. In a society where standing in the community was everything, this was understood as an act that ended the relationship, not a passing quarrel.

22:22

A "treacherous wound" is an injury done by someone trusted, a blow from behind. The list sets out the offenses that were held to be past repair, in contrast to the hot words of the previous verse.

22:23

Loyalty to a poor friend was expected to be repaid when his situation improved. "Be heir with him in his heritage" may mean literally sharing in what he inherits, or more loosely sharing in his good fortune as a member of his household would; the Greek allows both.

22:24

A furnace is a very hot fire built inside brick or stone. People used one to melt metal.

22:27

A "watch" is a sentry posted at a gate to control what passes through. A seal was a stamped lump of clay or wax closing a door or a document, so that nothing could be opened without the tampering showing. The same prayer, in almost the same words, appears in Psalm 141:3.