Ecclesiasticus 30: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter is a set of sayings in two parts. The first part tells a father to discipline his son with the rod, to give him no freedom in his youth, and to put him to work, and it says what a well-taught son is worth to his father both in life and after death. The second part says that health is worth more than riches, that a sick body makes even good things useless, and it urges the reader to drive sorrow, envy, anger and worry away, since gladness of heart lengthens a person's life.

Claim by Claim

1. 30:1
   • Whoever loves his son keeps applying the rod to him.
   • The purpose of this discipline is that the father may have joy from the son in the end.
2. 30:2
   • Whoever disciplines his son will have joy in him.
   • Whoever disciplines his son will rejoice over him among his acquaintances.
3. 30:3
   • Whoever teaches his son causes the enemy grief.
   • Whoever teaches his son will rejoice over him before his friends.
4. 30:4
   • The father of such a son dies.
   • Though the father has died, it is as though he were not dead.
   • The reason is that he has left behind him one like himself.
5. 30:5
   • While he lived, he saw his son and rejoiced.
   • When he died, he was not sorrowful.
6. 30:6
   • He left behind an avenger against his enemies.
   • He left behind one who will repay kindness to his friends.
7. 30:7
   • Whoever makes too much of his son will bind up the son's wounds.
   • Such a father's inward parts will be troubled at every cry of the son.
8. 30:8
   • An unbroken horse becomes headstrong.
   • A child left to himself becomes wilful.
9. 30:9
   • Pamper your child and he will make you afraid.
   • Play with him and he will bring you to grief.
10. 30:10
    • Do not laugh with him.
    • Laughing with him risks that you will have sorrow with him.
    • Laughing with him risks that you will gnash your teeth in the end.
11. 30:11
    • Do not give him liberty in his youth.
    • Do not overlook his follies.
12. 30:12
    • Bow down his neck while he is young.
    • Beat him on the sides while he is a child.
    • Otherwise he will grow stubborn.
    • Otherwise he will be disobedient to you.
    • Otherwise he will bring sorrow to your heart.
13. 30:13
    • Discipline your son.
    • Keep him at labor.
    • Otherwise his shameless behavior will be an offense to you.
14. 30:14
    • A poor man who is healthy and strong in body is better off than a rich man who is afflicted in his body.
15. 30:15
    • Health and a good condition of body are worth more than all gold.
    • A strong body is worth more than unlimited wealth.
16. 30:16
    • There is no wealth better than a sound body.
    • There is no joy above the joy of the heart.
17. 30:17
    • Death is better than a bitter life.
    • Death is better than continual sickness.
18. 30:18
    • Good things poured out upon a mouth that is shut are like food offerings set upon a grave.
19. 30:19
    • An offering to an idol does the idol no good.
    • An idol cannot eat.
    • An idol cannot smell.
    • The one who is persecuted by the Lord is like the idol.
20. 30:20
    • He sees with his eyes and groans.
    • He is like a eunuch who embraces a virgin and sighs.
21. 30:21
    • Do not give your mind over to sorrow.
    • Do not afflict yourself by your own deliberate purpose.
22. 30:22
    • Gladness of heart is the life of a man.
    • A man's joyfulness lengthens his days.
23. 30:23
    • Love your own soul.
    • Comfort your heart.
    • Remove sorrow far from you.
    • Sorrow has killed many.
    • There is no profit in sorrow.
24. 30:24
    • Envy and wrath shorten life.
    • Anxiety brings old age before its time.
25. 30:25
    • A cheerful and good heart will attend to its food and diet.

Words Worth Explaining

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

30:1

"The rod" is a stick used for beating. Physical punishment of children is a standing theme in ancient Jewish wisdom writing, and the book returns to the image several times in this chapter.

30:2

In 1611 English, to "chastise" meant to discipline or correct, and it usually carried the sense of punishing physically rather than merely scolding.

30:3

"Grieveth the enemy" does not mean makes him sad. The Greek says the man provokes his enemy to jealousy, that is, the sight of a well-taught son galls the rival who has none.

30:4

Long ago a son carried on his father's name and work. So people said the father lived on in him.

30:6

In this society a man's grown son inherited his father's quarrels and his debts of gratitude alike. He was expected to pursue redress for wrongs done to the family, including killing, and to repay those who had been loyal to it.

30:7

The King James says "his bowels will be troubled." In older English the bowels were spoken of as the seat of deep feeling, roughly where a modern speaker would say the heart or the gut.

30:9

"Cocker" is an old English verb meaning to pamper or indulge. "Heaviness" in the King James means low spirits, grief or depression, not weight.

30:10

Grinding the teeth together was a recognized sign of bitter distress or helpless rage, not of anger at the child alone.

30:11

To "wink at" something in older English meant to close your eyes to it on purpose, to let a fault pass without comment.

30:12

"Bow down his neck" borrows the language of putting a yoke on a young ox so it learns to pull. Beating "on the sides" means on the flanks or ribs, the same place a driver struck an animal.

30:13

In 1611 "lewd" meant unruly, worthless or shameless in general, without the narrowly sexual sense the word has today. An "offence" here is a cause of public disgrace to the father.

30:15

"Good estate of body" uses estate in its older sense of state or condition. It means bodily condition, not property, even though the verse goes on to speak of gold.

30:17

The Greek behind this verse runs a little longer: death is better than a bitter life, and everlasting rest better than a sickness that does not end. The King James compresses the second half.

30:18

"Delicates" are delicacies, choice foods. A "mess of meat" is simply a serving of food; in 1611 "meat" meant food of any kind. Food was commonly set out at a tomb for the dead, and the point is that the dead cannot eat it, so the offering is wasted.

30:19

Offerings to an image included food placed before it and incense burned in front of it, which is why the verse says the idol can neither eat nor smell. "Persecuted of the Lord" uses persecute in its older, wider sense of pursued or afflicted.

30:20

A eunuch is a castrated man. Such men were common as servants in royal households and were trusted around women precisely because they could not father children, so the image is of desire with no possible outcome.

30:21

"Afflict not thyself in thine own counsel" means do not bring misery on yourself by your own deliberate reasoning, by talking yourself into it.

30:23

"Love thine own soul" does not set the soul against the body. In this idiom the soul is the self or the living person, so the line means value your own life.

30:24

"Carefulness" in the King James means being full of care in the old sense: anxiety and worry, not attentiveness.

30:25

"Meat and diet" means food and the regimen of eating. The Greek versions and the Latin divide this part of the book differently, so in some Bibles this verse is numbered elsewhere or appears at the head of a different chapter.