Ecclesiasticus 31: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter is teaching about money and about how to behave at a meal. It describes the sleeplessness that comes with riches and the ruin gold has brought to many, and it calls happy the rich man who is found without fault and has not gone after gold. It then gives rules for a guest at a full table, praises eating in moderation, and sets the generous host against the stingy one. It closes with wine: drunk in measure it gladdens the heart, and drunk to excess it brings bitterness and quarreling.

Claim by Claim

1. 31:1
   • Wakefulness over riches wastes away the flesh.
   • Anxiety about riches drives away sleep.
2. 31:2
   • Wakeful care keeps a man from slumbering.
   • A severe illness breaks sleep.
3. 31:3
   • The rich man labors hard at gathering money.
   • When the rich man rests, he is filled with his luxuries.
4. 31:4
   • The poor man labors in lack of livelihood.
   • When the poor man stops laboring, he is still needy.
5. 31:5
   • He who loves gold will not be justified.
   • He who pursues corruption will be filled with it.
6. 31:6
   • Many have been brought to ruin for the sake of gold.
   • Their destruction came upon them face to face.
7. 31:7
   • Gold is a stumbling block to those who sacrifice to it.
   • Every fool will be trapped by it.
8. 31:8
   • Blessed is the rich man who is found blameless.
   • Blessed is the rich man who has not gone after gold.
9. 31:9
   • The speaker asks who such a man is.
   • The speaker says they will call such a man blessed.
   • Such a man has done wonderful things among his people.
10. 31:10
    • The speaker asks who has been tested by wealth and found perfect.
    • Let such a man have cause to boast.
    • The speaker asks who had the power to transgress and did not transgress.
    • The speaker asks who had the power to do evil and did not do it.
11. 31:11
    • His goods will be made secure.
    • The assembly will proclaim his acts of charity.
12. 31:12
    • If you sit at a great table, do not open your throat greedily over it.
    • Do not say that there is much food on it.
13. 31:13
    • Remember that a grudging eye is an evil thing.
    • The speaker asks what has been created more evil than an eye.
    • Because of this the eye sheds tears at every face.
14. 31:14
    • Do not stretch out your hand wherever the eye looks.
    • Do not jostle your neighbor in the dish.
15. 31:15
    • Judge your neighbor's feelings by your own.
    • Be thoughtful in every matter.
16. 31:16
    • Eat what is set before you as a human being should.
    • Do not chew greedily, lest you be hated.
17. 31:17
    • Be the first to stop eating, for the sake of good manners.
    • Do not be insatiable, lest you give offense.
18. 31:18
    • If you sit among many people, do not reach out your hand before them.
19. 31:19
    • A very little is sufficient for a well-mannered man.
    • He does not breathe heavily in his bed.
20. 31:20
    • Healthy sleep comes with a moderate stomach.
    • The moderate man rises early.
    • His wits are with him.
    • The pain of sleeplessness, nausea, and colic are with a greedy man.
21. 31:21
    • If you have been forced to eat too much, get up in the middle of the meal and vomit.
    • Then you will have relief.
22. 31:22
    • The speaker tells his son to listen to him.
    • The speaker tells his son not to despise him.
    • In the end the son will find the speaker's words true.
    • Be diligent in all your works.
    • No sickness will come upon you.
23. 31:23
    • People will speak well of the man who is generous with his food.
    • The testimony to his excellence is trustworthy.
24. 31:24
    • The city will murmur against the man who is stingy with his food.
    • The testimony to his stinginess is exact.
25. 31:25
    • Do not show off your manliness in wine.
    • Wine has destroyed many.
26. 31:26
    • The furnace tests the temper of steel by dipping.
    • Wine tests the hearts of the proud in quarreling.
27. 31:27
    • Wine is like life to a man, if he drinks it in measure.
    • The speaker asks what life is to a man who lacks wine.
    • Wine was created to make men glad.
28. 31:28
    • Wine drunk at the right time and in sufficient measure is gladness of heart and joy of soul.
29. 31:29
    • Wine drunk in excess is bitterness of soul.
    • Excessive wine brings provocation and conflict.
30. 31:30
    • Drunkenness increases a fool's rage to his stumbling.
    • Drunkenness diminishes strength.
    • Drunkenness produces wounds.
31. 31:31
    • Do not rebuke your neighbor at a wine banquet.
    • Do not despise him in his mirth.
    • Do not speak a word of reproach to him.
    • Do not distress him by pressing demands on him.

Words Worth Explaining

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

31:1

"Watching" in the King James means lying awake, staying up, not keeping an eye on something. "Consumeth the flesh" means wears the body away.

31:3

"Delicates" means delicacies, rich or costly food. The word has nothing to do with delicacy of manner or of health.

31:4

"Poor estate" means poor condition or circumstances. "Estate" in 1611 meant a person's state or standing in life, not land or property.

31:5

"Shall not be justified" is courtroom language: he will not be acquitted, will not be declared to be in the right.

31:6

"Their destruction was present" means their ruin stood right in front of them, face to face, not hidden or far off.

31:7

The picture is of gold set up as a god with offerings made to it. A "stumblingblock" is a stone or obstacle left in a path, the thing a walker trips over without seeing it.

31:8

"Without blemish" was the standard phrase for an animal with no flaw or defect and therefore fit to be offered in sacrifice. Here the phrase is transferred to a person's character.

31:9

"Who is he? and we will call him blessed" is a challenge, not a question expecting an answer: such a man is rare enough that the writer asks to be shown one. To call a man blessed meant to declare him fortunate out loud, in public.

31:10

"Who might offend" means who had the power and the opportunity to do wrong. "Offend" in 1611 meant to commit an offense, to break a law, not to hurt someone's feelings. "Let him glory" means let him boast.

31:11

"Alms" are gifts of money or food to the poor. "The congregation" is the assembled community, which would recall a generous man's giving aloud; that public recital was how a reputation was preserved.

31:12

"Meat" in the King James means food of any kind, not flesh specifically. From this verse to the end of the chapter the subject is how to behave as a guest at a rich man's table, where a guest's manners were watched and talked about afterward.

31:13

"A wicked eye" is a fixed idiom for a greedy or grudging look, the same idiom that lies behind the phrase "evil eye." The last line is obscure in the Greek: it may mean that the eye, never satisfied, weeps at everything it sees, or that a greedy eye brings tears to every face it falls on.

31:14

Diners ate with their hands from common dishes set in the middle of the table. Reaching at the same moment as another man, or digging into the portion of the dish nearest him, was a breach of manners.

31:15

"Judge not thy neighbour by thyself" sounds to a modern ear like a warning against measuring others by your own standard, but the sense is the reverse: work out what your neighbor is feeling by remembering how you would feel in his place.

31:16

The King James line reads "devour not," meaning do not bolt your food; the "note" printed here is a slip for "not." "Eat as it becometh a man" means eat as a human being should, not as an animal feeds.

31:17

"Leave off first" means be the first to stop eating, not the first to begin. "Unsatiable" is the older spelling of insatiable, never satisfied.

31:18

At a shared table the order in which people reached for food followed rank and age. A guest who put his hand out before everyone else was pushing himself forward ahead of his place.

31:19

"Well nurtured" means well brought up and well trained in manners, not well fed. "He fetcheth not his wind short upon his bed" means he does not lie there panting for breath, as a man does who has eaten too much.

31:20

"Watching" again means lying awake. "Choler" was yellow bile, one of the four bodily fluids of ancient medicine, blamed both for hot temper and for a churning stomach; here it means the sickness that follows overeating. "His wits are with him" means his mind is clear.

31:21

Making yourself vomit to relieve an overloaded stomach was a recognized remedy at ancient banquets, where a guest could not easily refuse what his host pressed on him. Some Greek manuscripts read simply that he should get up in the middle of the meal and go out, without the word vomit.

31:22

"Be quick" translates a Greek word meaning active, capable, skillful at your work. It is not about speed.

31:23

"Liberal of his meat" means open handed with his food. "Good housekeeping" means the way a man provisions and manages his household, not tidiness; a reputation for keeping a generous table was a real social asset.

31:24

"Niggard" is an old English word for a miser or a tightfisted man, and "niggardness" for stinginess. It comes from a Scandinavian root meaning stingy and has no connection with any modern word it happens to resemble.

31:25

"Shew not thy valiantness in wine" refers to the drinking contest: at banquets men would boast of how much they could hold and dare each other to keep pace.

31:26

A smith tested a newly forged blade by heating it and plunging it into liquid, the process called quenching or tempering; a flawed blade cracked. "Proveth" means puts to the test. The second half is compressed in the Greek and is read two ways: that wine tests the hearts of the proud, and that the test shows itself in their quarreling.

31:27

Wine was the ordinary daily drink, normally watered down before being served, not a luxury reserved for occasions.

31:28

"Measurably" means in measured amounts, in moderation. "In season" means at the fitting time and occasion.

31:30

"Till he offend" means until he trips himself up or comes to harm; "offend" here carries the old sense of stumbling into a wrong. "Maketh wounds" refers to the injuries of drunken brawling.

31:31

"At the wine" means during the drinking that followed the meal, a distinct stage of the banquet when the food was cleared and the cups went round. The last clause is disputed: the Greek can mean do not press him with demands of any kind, and it is often read specifically as do not dun him for repayment of a debt while he is enjoying himself.