Ecclesiasticus 32: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter gives instructions for behavior at a banquet: the one put in charge should serve the guests before taking his own place, the older guest may speak but should not interrupt the music, and the young man should speak briefly and only when asked. It then tells the guest when to leave, and to bless the one who made him. The second half turns to those who fear the Lord and seek the law, contrasting them with the sinner who refuses correction, and closes with warnings about acting without advice and about walking carelessly.

Claim by Claim

1. 32:1
   • If you are made the master of a feast, do not exalt yourself.
   • The master of a feast is to be among the guests as one of them.
   • The master of a feast is to take diligent care of the guests.
   • The master of a feast is to sit down only after caring for the guests.
2. 32:2
   • When you have finished all your duty as host, take your own place.
   • Taking your place is so that you may be made glad on account of the guests.
   • The host receives a crown for his good ordering of the feast.
3. 32:3
   • The elder is told to speak.
   • Speaking befits the elder.
   • The elder is to speak with exact knowledge.
   • The elder is not to hinder the music.
4. 32:4
   • Where there is a musical performance, do not pour out talk.
   • Do not display wisdom at the wrong time.
5. 32:5
   • A concert of music at a banquet of wine is like a carbuncle signet set in gold ornament.
6. 32:6
   • Musical melody with pleasant wine is like an emerald signet set in a work of gold.
7. 32:7
   • The young man is told to speak if there is need of him.
   • The young man should speak scarcely even when asked twice.
8. 32:8
   • Sum up your speech, putting much into few words.
   • Be as one who knows and at the same time keeps silent.
9. 32:9
   • Among great men, do not make yourself their equal.
   • When elders are present, do not use many words.
10. 32:10
    • Lightning hastens before the thunder.
    • Favour goes before a modest man.
11. 32:11
    • Rise up at the proper time.
    • Do not be the last to leave.
    • Go home quickly.
    • Do not loiter.
12. 32:12
    • At home, take your pastime.
    • At home, do what is in your heart.
    • Do not sin by proud speech.
13. 32:13
    • For these things, bless the one who made you.
    • The one who made you has filled you to the full with his good things.
14. 32:14
    • Whoever fears the Lord will receive discipline.
    • Those who seek him early will find favour.
15. 32:15
    • He who seeks the law will be filled with it.
    • The hypocrite will be made to stumble by the law.
16. 32:16
    • Those who fear the Lord will find judgment.
    • Those who fear the Lord will kindle righteous acts like a light.
17. 32:17
    • A sinful man turns aside from reproof.
    • A sinful man finds a judgment that agrees with his own will.
18. 32:18
    • A man of counsel will not overlook a thought.
    • A strange and proud man is not made to cower by fear.
    • The strange and proud man is undaunted even after he has acted by himself without counsel.
19. 32:19
    • Do nothing without counsel.
    • When you have acted, do not regret it.
20. 32:20
    • Do not go in a way where you may fall.
    • Do not stumble among stones.
21. 32:21
    • Do not be confident on a way that seems free of obstacles.
22. 32:22
    • Beware of your own children.
23. 32:23
    • In every work, trust your own soul.
    • Trusting your own soul in every work is the keeping of the commandments.
24. 32:24
    • He who believes in the Lord gives heed to the commandment.
    • He who trusts in him will suffer no loss.

Words Worth Explaining

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

32:1

Chapters 31 and 32 give advice for a formal dinner. In Greek and Hellenistic custom such a banquet had a president chosen from among the guests, sometimes by lot, who set the order of the evening: how strongly the wine was mixed, when the music played, who spoke and when. This is the man being addressed.

32:2

KJV "office" means the duties of the post, not a room. The crown is a wreath of leaves or flowers, worn at banquets and given as a mark of the guests' approval for an evening well run.

32:3

At such a table the right to speak first went by age, so "it becometh thee" means it falls to you, it is fitting for you. The music is live performance by hired players, which is why talking across it is a discourtesy to a person, not just noise.

32:4

Singers and players made music while people ate. Talking loudly over them was rude.

32:5

A signet was a ring or stone engraved with its owner's mark and pressed into soft wax or clay to seal a letter or a jar; it served as a signature, and one mounted in gold was expensive work. "Carbuncle" was the old English name for a deep red stone, garnet or ruby. "Concert" in 1611 means simply sounding together, instruments and voices in agreement, not a ticketed event.

32:6

The Greek word rendered "emerald" (smaragdos) covered a range of green stones and need not mean the emerald of a modern jeweler. Verse 6 restates verse 5 with a different stone; saying a thing twice in slightly different words is the ordinary shape of this kind of poetry, not repetition by accident.

32:7

The Greek is compressed and its sense is disputed: either speak no more than twice, or speak only after being asked a second time. Either way the instruction is that the youngest man present speaks briefly and only on invitation.

32:8

To hold your tongue means to stay quiet. You know the answer, but you do not say it.

32:9

In 1611 "ancient" meant simply aged or elderly, with no suggestion of remote antiquity. "Ancient men are in place" means older men are present and seated.

32:10

"Shamefaced" in 1611 was a compliment. It meant modest and reserved, quick to blush, and carried no sense of having been caught out. "Favour" here is the goodwill of other people: as the flash arrives before the crash, a modest man's good name arrives ahead of him.

32:11

"Betimes" means early, in good time. The advice concerns leaving the banquet: rise among the first, rather than being the last guest still at the table.

32:12

The "there" is home. The restraint the dinner required is over once you are in your own house, with the one exception of boastful talk.

32:13

"Replenished" in 1611 means filled full, not filled a second time.

32:14

"Discipline" translates the Greek paideia, the whole training of a pupil by a teacher: instruction, correction and formation together, not punishment alone. "Seek him early" renders a verb built on the word for dawn, and carries both rising early to look and looking eagerly.

32:15

"The law" means the Law of Moses, the Torah, the body of teaching Ben Sira treats throughout his book as the place where wisdom is found. "Hypocrite" translates a Greek word whose root sense is a stage actor, someone playing a part; that older force is what the rendering's "pretender" carries.

32:16

"Judgment" here means a sound decision or a just verdict, not condemnation. Kindling justice as a light is the image of lighting a lamp: right actions are set burning so that others can see by them.

32:17

The Greek says he finds a "judgment" or interpretation to suit his own wish: he reads the rule in whatever way lets him do what he had already decided to do.

32:18

The Greek of this verse is difficult and the ancient copies differ. The first half says roughly that a man who takes counsel will not pass over a thought, that is, will not brush an idea aside unexamined. In the second half "strange" is the KJV's word for insolent or presumptuous, not unfamiliar, and "not daunted with fear" means he feels none of the hesitation that would make a careful man stop and ask.

32:19

"Repent not" in 1611 means do not regret, do not have second thoughts afterward. It has nothing to do with repentance from sin.

32:20

This road is not a real road made of dirt. It means the way you live each day.

32:21

"A plain way" is a smooth, level road. The warning is that easy ground is exactly where a traveler stops watching his feet.

32:22

The line is abrupt and its sense is disputed. Taken as it stands in Greek it warns that caution is owed even inside your own household. Some ancient versions point instead to a word meaning "your ways" or "your paths," which would continue the walking image of the two verses before it.

32:23

The Greek verb is "trust" or "entrust," and the noun behind "soul" commonly means simply the self or one's own life, so the line reads "in every work trust yourself." Some manuscripts have "guard your own soul" instead of "trust."

32:24

Greek copies differ here: some read "he who believes the law," others "he who believes the Lord," and modern translations split between them; the KJV follows the second. "Fare never the worse" means will come to no loss by it.