Ecclesiasticus 4: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The chapter opens with commands about how to treat the poor, the hungry, the fatherless and the person who is being wronged, and warns that the one who made a cursing man will hear his prayer. It then turns to wisdom, described as a woman who tests the one who follows her with hard, crooked paths and discipline before she brings him back to the straight road and shows him her secrets, and who abandons him if he goes wrong. The last section gives short instructions about shame, speaking up, standing by the truth, and how to behave toward the foolish, the powerful, one's own household, and those one owes.

Claim by Claim

1. 4:1
   • The speaker addresses the hearer as his son.
   • Do not defraud the poor of his living.
   • Do not make the eyes of the needy wait long.
2. 4:2
   • Do not make a hungry soul sorrowful.
   • Do not provoke a man in his time of distress.
3. 4:3
   • Do not add more trouble to a heart that is already vexed.
   • Do not delay giving to one who is in need.
4. 4:4
   • Do not refuse an afflicted person who begs of you.
   • Do not turn your face away from a poor man.
5. 4:5
   • Do not turn your eye away from one who asks.
   • Do not give a man occasion to curse you.
6. 4:6
   • If the wronged man curses you in the bitterness of his soul, the one who made him will hear his prayer.
7. 4:7
   • Make yourself loved by the assembly.
   • Bow your head to a great man.
8. 4:8
   • Incline your ear to a poor man.
   • Answer him peaceably and with meekness.
9. 4:9
   • Deliver the one who is wronged out of the hand of the one wronging him.
   • Do not be fainthearted when you give judgment.
10. 4:10
    • Be like a father to orphans.
    • Be to their mother in place of a husband.
    • If you do so you will be like a son of the Most High.
    • He will love you more than your own mother does.
11. 4:11
    • Wisdom exalts her sons.
    • Wisdom takes hold of those who seek her.
12. 4:12
    • He who loves wisdom loves life.
    • Those who rise early to seek her will be filled with gladness.
13. 4:13
    • He who holds wisdom fast will inherit glory.
    • Wherever the entering takes place, the Lord will bless; the Greek leaves it unclear whether wisdom or the man who holds her is the one who enters.
14. 4:14
    • Those who serve wisdom minister to the Holy One.
    • The Lord loves those who love wisdom.
15. 4:15
    • He who obeys wisdom will judge nations.
    • He who comes to her will dwell securely.
16. 4:16
    • If a man entrusts himself to wisdom, he will inherit her.
    • His generations will hold her in possession.
17. 4:17
    • At first wisdom walks with the man by crooked ways.
    • Wisdom brings fear and dread upon him.
    • Wisdom torments him with her discipline.
    • She does this until she can trust his soul.
    • Wisdom tests him by her ordinances.
18. 4:18
    • Then wisdom returns to him along the straight way.
    • Wisdom gladdens him.
    • Wisdom reveals her secrets to him.
19. 4:19
    • If the man goes astray, wisdom will forsake him.
    • Wisdom will hand him over to his own fall.
20. 4:20
    • Watch for the right time.
    • Beware of evil.
    • Do not be ashamed concerning your own soul.
21. 4:21
    • There is a shame that brings sin.
    • There is a shame that is glory and grace.
22. 4:22
    • Do not show partiality to a person against your own soul.
    • Do not let deference to a man bring you to your fall.
23. 4:23
    • Do not hold back a word at a time when it brings deliverance.
    • Do not hide your wisdom in her beauty.
24. 4:24
    • Wisdom is known by speech.
    • Instruction is known by the word of the tongue.
25. 4:25
    • Do not speak against the truth.
    • Be ashamed of the error of your ignorance.
26. 4:26
    • Do not be ashamed to confess your sins.
    • Do not force the current of a river.
27. 4:27
    • Do not spread yourself under a foolish man to be trodden on.
    • Do not show partiality to a ruler.
28. 4:28
    • Strive for the truth until death.
    • The Lord God will fight on your behalf.
29. 4:29
    • Do not be rough with your tongue.
    • Do not be slack and slothful in your deeds.
30. 4:30
    • Do not be like a lion in your own house.
    • Do not bluster and play the tyrant among your household servants.
31. 4:31
    • Do not let your hand be stretched out to receive.
    • Do not let your hand be closed when it is time to repay.

Words Worth Explaining

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

4:1

"My son" is the standard way a wisdom teacher addresses a pupil in this kind of book; it does not mean the writer is speaking to his own child. The book was written in Hebrew by Jesus son of Sirach around 180 BC and translated into Greek by his grandson, which is why some of its lines survive in two forms that do not quite agree.

4:2

"Soul" in the King James of this book normally stands for the whole living person, or for the appetite and feeling in a person, not for a separate spiritual part. "An hungry soul" is simply a hungry human being.

4:3

"Vexed" in 1611 English is much stronger than the modern word. It means grieved, distressed, worn down, not merely irritated.

4:5

A curse here is not foul language. It is a formal appeal to God to act against the person who has wronged you, and such an appeal from someone genuinely wronged was treated as a real danger to the one who caused the wrong.

4:6

"Heard of him that made him" uses "of" in its old sense of "by." The prayer will be heard by God, who made the man.

4:7

"Congregation" does not mean a church gathering. It is the assembled community, the body of townsmen who meet to settle public business, whose good opinion a man needed. Bowing the head was the ordinary physical gesture of respect toward someone of higher rank.

4:8

"Meekness" in the King James means humility or gentleness of manner. It does not carry the modern suggestion of weakness or timidity.

4:9

Ordinary justice was handled locally by respected men sitting in the open space by the town gate, so any man of standing might find himself deciding a neighbor's case. "Be not fainthearted" warns against losing nerve in the face of the more powerful party.

4:10

A child with no father and a woman with no husband had nobody to press their claims in court or defend their property, so taking that role on was a recognized public duty rather than private kindness. "The most High" is a title for God.

4:11

From here through verse 19 wisdom is spoken of as a woman: she has children, she can be sought, courted, held on to, and she can walk away. This personification is a fixed convention of Hebrew wisdom writing, and "her" does not point to any goddess or actual person.

4:12

"Seek to her early" translates a Greek expression built on rising at dawn. It carries both senses at once: searching eagerly, first thing, and beginning the search early in life.

4:13

"Inherit" here has nothing to do with a will or a death. It is the ordinary word for coming into a lasting possession, the kind of holding that stays in a family.

4:14

"Minister" means to serve, and the Greek word is the one used for service in the temple. "The Holy One" is a title for God. The line puts the service of wisdom on the same footing as priestly service.

4:15

"Judge the nations" means govern them. In this older sense a judge was a ruler who settled disputes as part of governing, not only a court official.

4:16

"His generation" means his descendants, the people who come after him, not the people alive at the same time as him.

4:17

"Crooked ways" means twisting, roundabout paths, not dishonest ones. The surviving Hebrew of this verse reads differently, saying that wisdom walks with him in disguise, unrecognized, and translators disagree over which reading lies behind the Greek. "Discipline" translates a word covering the whole of a child's upbringing and training, punishments included.

4:20

"Observe the opportunity" translates a word for the decisive moment, the point at which action will actually count. The second half of the verse is genuinely unclear in the Greek and has been read both as "do not be ashamed of yourself" and as "do not be ashamed when your own life is at stake."

4:21

This depends on ancient ideas of honor and shame, in which shame is not automatically a bad thing. One kind is the embarrassment that stops a person doing what is right; the other is the sense of shame that does a person credit. Ben Sira takes up the distinction at length later in the book.

4:22

"Accept no person" is a King James idiom with nothing to do with accepting people. It translates a phrase meaning to lift someone's face, that is, to show favoritism, especially by a judge who decides according to who the parties are. The same idiom returns in verse 27.

4:23

The second half of this verse is obscure in the Greek and has been translated in sharply different ways: do not hide your wisdom when showing it would be fitting, or do not hide it in order to keep up appearances. "In her beauty" is a literal rendering of words whose sense here is disputed.

4:25

"In no wise" means in no way at all. "Be abashed" means be ashamed.

4:26

Pushing back the current of a river was a stock image for an effort that cannot possibly succeed.

4:27

"Underling" translates a picture of lying down flat so that somebody else can walk across you. On "accept the person," see the note at verse 22.

4:28

"Unto death" means for the whole of your life, and even if standing for the truth costs you your life.

4:29

"Remiss" means slack and negligent. The two halves warn against opposite faults: a tongue too quick and hands too slow.

4:30

"Frantick" is the 1611 spelling of frantic, and here means raging or throwing your weight around. The sense of the Greek word is uncertain and has also been understood as suspicious or fault-finding toward one's household staff. A lion in the house is a domestic tyrant.

4:31

This is a picture of a hand. It opens wide to take gifts, then shuts tight when it is time to pay back.