Ecclesiasticus 25: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter is a collection of sayings. It opens with three things that made the speaker beautiful before God and people, three kinds of men he hates, and praise for the good sense, experience, and fear of God found in old age. Then comes a list of nine happy things with a tenth spoken aloud, ending with the claim that no one stands above the person who fears the Lord. The rest of the chapter lists troubles a man may suffer, and most of it concerns a wicked or talkative wife, closing with the instruction to send such a wife away with a certificate of divorce.

Claim by Claim

1. 25:1
   • The speaker says he was made beautiful in three things.
   • The speaker says he stood up beautiful before God and before men.
   • The first of the three is the unity of brothers.
   • The second of the three is the love of neighbours.
   • The third of the three is a husband and wife who agree together.
2. 25:2
   • The speaker's soul hates three sorts of men.
   • The speaker is greatly offended at the life of these three sorts.
   • The first is a poor man who is proud.
   • The second is a rich man who is a liar.
   • The third is an old adulterer who is senseless.
3. 25:3
   • If a man gathered nothing in his youth, he will not find anything in his old age.
   • The statement is put as a question: how can you find anything in old age if you gathered nothing in youth.
4. 25:4
   • Sound judgment is a fitting thing for gray hairs.
   • It is a fitting thing for aged men to know counsel.
5. 25:5
   • The wisdom of old men is a fitting thing.
   • Understanding and counsel are fitting in men of honour.
6. 25:6
   • Much experience is the crown of old men.
   • The fear of God is the glory of old men.
7. 25:7
   • The speaker has judged nine things in his heart to be happy.
   • The speaker will speak a tenth with his tongue.
   • Happy is a man who has joy from his children.
   • Happy is the man who lives to see the fall of his enemy.
8. 25:8
   • Happy is the man who lives with a wife of understanding.
   • Happy is the man who has not slipped with his tongue.
   • Happy is the man who has not served a man less worthy than himself.
9. 25:9
   • Happy is the man who has found prudence.
   • Happy is the man who speaks in the ears of those who will listen.
10. 25:10
    • Great is the man who finds wisdom.
    • There is no one above the man who fears the Lord.
11. 25:11
    • The love of the Lord surpasses all things for giving light.
    • No comparison can be found for the man who holds to the love of the Lord.
    • The statement about him who holds it is put as a question: to what shall he be likened.
12. 25:12
    • The fear of the Lord is the beginning of love for him.
    • Faith is the beginning of cleaving to him.
13. 25:13
    • The speaker asks for any plague rather than a plague of the heart.
    • The speaker asks for any wickedness rather than the wickedness of a woman.
14. 25:14
    • The speaker asks for any affliction rather than affliction from those who hate him.
    • The speaker asks for any revenge rather than the revenge of enemies.
15. 25:15
    • There is no head worse than the head of a serpent.
    • There is no wrath greater than the wrath of an enemy.
16. 25:16
    • The speaker would rather live with a lion and a dragon than keep house with a wicked woman.
17. 25:17
    • The wickedness of a woman changes her appearance.
    • The wickedness of a woman darkens her face like sackcloth.
18. 25:18
    • Her husband will sit among his neighbours.
    • When her husband hears, he will sigh bitterly.
19. 25:19
    • All wickedness is small compared with the wickedness of a woman.
    • The speaker asks that the portion of a sinner fall upon her.
20. 25:20
    • Climbing a sandy slope is hard for the feet of an old man.
    • A talkative wife is to a quiet man what that sandy climb is to the feet of an old man.
21. 25:21
    • Do not stumble at the beauty of a woman.
    • Do not desire a woman for pleasure.
22. 25:22
    • A woman who supports her husband is full of anger.
    • Such a woman is full of shamelessness.
    • Such a woman is full of much reproach.
23. 25:23
    • A wicked woman weakens courage.
    • A wicked woman causes a downcast face.
    • A wicked woman causes a wounded heart.
    • A woman who will not comfort her husband in distress makes his hands weak.
    • Such a woman makes his knees feeble.
24. 25:24
    • Sin began from the woman.
    • Because of her all of us die.
25. 25:25
    • Do not give water an outlet.
    • Do not give a wicked woman freedom to go about.
26. 25:26
    • If she does not go as you would have her, cut her away from your flesh.
    • Give her a bill of divorce.
    • Let her go.

Words Worth Explaining

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

25:1

The "I" of this book is its author, a Jewish teacher in Jerusalem writing around 180 BC, who speaks throughout in his own voice as a wisdom instructor. "Brethren" means brothers: in this society brothers often went on sharing the family land and household after their father died, so brothers who lived together without quarreling over the inheritance were worth singling out.

25:2

The King James "doateth" does not mean doting or affectionate. In 1611 to dote was to be weak-minded or silly with age, so the phrase describes an old man whose judgment has gone.

25:3

The picture is farming: gathering in a harvest and storing it against the lean months. What is gathered here is learning and experience, laid up in youth to be drawn on in old age.

25:4

"Comely" in 1611 meant fitting or becoming, not good-looking. "Judgment" here means the ability to weigh a matter and decide it well, not a verdict or a punishment.

25:5

"Men of honour" means men of rank and public standing, those with a position in the community, rather than men who are simply honest.

25:6

A crown here is the wreath or garland worn as a mark of distinction at feasts and awarded to victors, so it stands for what makes a man conspicuous and respected. "The fear of God" is a standing idiom in these books for reverence and awe before God, the attitude of someone who takes God seriously, not fright.

25:7

Counting "nine things, and the tenth" is a standard form in Hebrew wisdom writing: a list is announced with one number, then capped by the next, so that the final item carries the weight. In the surviving Greek text fewer than nine items are actually named before the list breaks off into verses 10 and 11, and no copy resolves the mismatch.

25:8

"Slipped with his tongue" is an idiom for saying the one thing that cannot be taken back. To have "served a man more unworthy than himself" means to have fallen into debt, bonded labor or dependence on someone of lower character or lower standing; losing one's independence that way was a public disgrace.

25:11

Giving light means helping you see clearly, the way a lamp does.

25:12

This verse, and the second half of verse 11, are found in the Latin version of the book but not in the oldest Greek manuscripts. Because ancient copies of this book differ in length, verse numbers here do not always match between one Bible and another.

25:13

"Plague" in 1611 meant any blow, stroke or affliction, not specifically an epidemic disease. The line contrasts a wound to the body with a wound to the heart.

25:14

"Revenge" here means the retaliation a person receives, not the retaliation he takes: the harm that comes back at you from someone settling a score.

25:15

A snake's head is where the venom is, so "the head of a serpent" stands for the most dangerous thing a person could meet. The saying works by putting an enemy's anger on the same scale.

25:16

The King James "dragon" translates a Greek word for a large serpent or monstrous snake. It does not mean the winged, fire-breathing dragon of later European stories.

25:17

Sackcloth was a coarse, dark cloth woven from goat hair, worn next to the skin in mourning and grief. The comparison is to a face gone dark and drawn, the look of someone in mourning.

25:18

Men gathered daily in the open square or at the town gate, and that gathering was where a man's reputation was made and lost. The verse imagines him sitting there, hearing what his neighbors say about his household, and having no answer.

25:19

A "portion" is the share allotted to a person, as land or an inheritance is allotted. The line is a curse formula: may the share of trouble assigned to a sinner come to her.

25:20

A sandy way is a slope of loose sand, where each step slides back and the effort never converts into progress. That, not simple steepness, is the point of the comparison.

25:21

Where the King James reads "for pleasure," other Greek manuscripts read "for her possessions," that is, do not want a woman for what she owns. The copies genuinely differ, and the second reading runs straight on into the next verse about a wife whose money supports her husband.

25:22

To "maintain" someone in 1611 meant to provide for them financially. The verse pictures a household where the wife's own property keeps the husband, which reversed the expected arrangement and, in the writer's view, put her in a position to shame him.

25:23

Weak hands and knees that give way are a stock idiom in these writings for a person drained of strength and nerve, the physical picture standing for collapsed courage.

25:24

This points back to the story of Eve in Genesis 3, where the woman eats the forbidden fruit first and death follows. This verse is the earliest surviving text to state that connection in so many words.

25:25

The image is an irrigation channel or an earth dam. Once water finds the smallest way through, it widens the gap on its own and cannot be called back, so the only control is to allow no opening at all.

25:26

"Cut her off from thy flesh" plays on Genesis 2:24, where husband and wife become one flesh; divorce is spoken of as cutting that single body apart. The "bill of divorce" is the written certificate required by Deuteronomy 24:1. Only the husband could issue it, and it served as the woman's proof that she was free to marry someone else.