Ecclesiasticus 41: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The chapter speaks to death twice, calling its memory bitter to a man living comfortably and its sentence welcome to a man worn out by need and age, and it tells the reader not to fear that sentence, since it is the Lord's sentence over everyone who lives. It then pronounces woe on ungodly men, saying their children, their inheritance and their name will not last, while a good name lasts forever. The rest of the chapter is a list of things to be ashamed of ending with the promise that this is how a person is ashamed of the right things and finds favor with everyone.

Claim by Claim

1. 41:1
   • The remembrance of death is bitter to a man who lives at rest among his possessions.
   • The remembrance of death is bitter to the man who has nothing to trouble him.
   • The remembrance of death is bitter to the man who prospers in all things.
   • The remembrance of death is bitter to the man who is still able to eat food.
2. 41:2
   • The sentence of death is welcome to a man who is in need.
   • The sentence of death is welcome to a man whose strength is failing.
   • The sentence of death is welcome to a man who is in extreme old age.
   • The sentence of death is welcome to a man who is troubled about everything.
   • The sentence of death is welcome to a man who has lost hope.
   • The sentence of death is welcome to a man who has lost patience.
3. 41:3
   • Do not be afraid of the sentence of death.
   • Remember those who came before you.
   • Remember those who come after you.
   • The sentence of death is the Lord's sentence upon all flesh.
4. 41:4
   • The hearer is asked why he resists what pleases the Most High.
   • There is no inquiry about the length of life in the grave.
   • It makes no difference in the grave whether a man lived ten years, or a hundred, or a thousand.
5. 41:5
   • The children of sinners are abominable children.
   • The children of sinners frequent the dwellings of the ungodly.
6. 41:6
   • The inheritance of sinners' children will perish.
   • A lasting disgrace will attend their descendants.
7. 41:7
   • Children will complain against an ungodly father.
   • Children complain against an ungodly father because they are disgraced on his account.
8. 41:8
   • Woe is pronounced on ungodly men.
   • The ungodly men have forsaken the law of the Most High God.
   • If the ungodly increase, their increase will be to their destruction.
9. 41:9
   • If you are born, you are born to a curse.
   • If you die, a curse will be your portion.
10. 41:10
    • Everything that comes from the earth returns to the earth.
    • The ungodly go from a curse to destruction.
11. 41:11
    • The mourning of men concerns their bodies.
    • The evil name of sinners will be blotted out.
12. 41:12
    • Take care of your name.
    • Your name remains with you longer than a thousand great treasures of gold.
13. 41:13
    • A good life lasts a limited number of days.
    • A good name lasts forever.
14. 41:14
    • The speaker addresses his children.
    • The speaker tells them to keep instruction in peace.
    • Hidden wisdom and unseen treasure are of no profit.
15. 41:15
    • A man who hides his foolishness is better than a man who hides his wisdom.
16. 41:16
    • The hearer is told to feel shame according to the speaker's word.
    • It is not good to retain every kind of shame.
    • Not everything is approved by everyone in good faith.
17. 41:17
    • Be ashamed of sexual immorality before father and mother.
    • Be ashamed of a lie before a prince and a mighty man.
18. 41:18
    • Be ashamed of an offence before a judge and a ruler.
    • Be ashamed of lawlessness before the congregation and the people.
    • Be ashamed of unjust dealing before a partner and a friend.
19. 41:19
    • Be ashamed of theft in the place where you are a stranger.
    • Be ashamed before the truth of God and his covenant.
    • Be ashamed of leaning on your elbow at a meal.
    • Be ashamed of contempt in giving and receiving.
20. 41:20
    • Be ashamed of silence toward those who greet you.
    • Be ashamed of looking at a prostitute.
21. 41:21
    • Be ashamed of turning your face away from a kinsman.
    • Be ashamed of taking away a portion or a gift.
    • Be ashamed of gazing at a married woman.
22. 41:22
    • Be ashamed of meddling with another man's maidservant.
    • Do not go near her bed.
    • Be ashamed of reproachful speech toward friends.
    • After you have given, do not reproach the one you gave to.
23. 41:23
    • Be ashamed of repeating what you have heard.
    • Be ashamed of revealing secrets.
24. 41:24
    • Doing these things makes a man rightly ashamed.
    • Doing these things gains a man favour with every man.

Words Worth Explaining

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

41:1

The King James "able to receive meat" uses "meat" in its old general sense of food of any kind, not flesh in particular. The picture is of a man still healthy enough to eat and take pleasure in eating.

41:2

"Sentence" is a legal word: the verdict a judge hands down, which cannot be appealed. Death is being pictured as a sentence already passed. "In the last age" means in extreme old age, and "vexed with all things" means worn down and irritated by everything, not angry.

41:3

"All flesh" is a Hebrew idiom carried over into Greek, meaning every living creature, and here every human being without exception.

41:4

"The pleasure of the most High" means what he has decided and chosen, his will, not his enjoyment. "Inquisition" in 1611 English means simply an inquiry or investigation. "The grave" translates Hades, the underworld where the Greek Old Testament places all the dead together, a shadowy holding place rather than a place of reward or punishment; the point is that no one down there asks how long you lived.

41:5

"Conversant in" is 1611 English for spending your time somewhere and keeping company there. It has nothing to do with conversation, or with being well informed about a subject.

41:6

An inheritance meant the family's land and property passed from father to son, the basis of a household's security and its standing among neighbors; losing it meant losing the family's place in the community altogether. "Posterity" means descendants.

41:8

"Woe be unto you" opens a standard form of speech used by the prophets: a cry of grief over people already as good as doomed, rather than a curse being laid on them here and now. "The law of the most high God" is the Torah, the body of instruction given to Israel through Moses. "If ye increase" means increase in number, having many children, which was ordinarily counted the clearest sign of a flourishing family.

41:9

A "portion" is the share allotted to you, the word used for dividing out an inheritance among heirs. Instead of land or goods, what gets handed to these people is a curse.

41:10

The line echoes the words spoken over Adam in Genesis, "dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Burial put the body back into the ground it was said to have been made from.

41:11

The line is compressed and hard in the Greek. Mourning is something done over a body, and it ends when the body is gone; the name is what remains afterward. To be "blotted out" is to have your name wiped off a record, leaving nothing of you behind. The Greek can also be read as "the name of sinners, which is not good, shall be blotted out."

41:12

"Name" here means reputation, what people say about you and remember of you. In this culture a person's name was the part of them expected to outlast them, since the dead were thought of as surviving chiefly in being spoken of.

41:13

The King James "hath but few days" and the plain rendering differ because the Greek says a good life has "the number of its days," that is, a fixed and countable span. The King James translators took that to mean a short one.

41:14

"Discipline" translates the Greek paideia, meaning upbringing, training and education, the whole business of raising a child into an adult. It does not mean punishment. The Greek is also ambiguous about whether "in peace" belongs with the instruction or begins the next thought.

41:16

In 1611 "shamefaced" and "shamefacedness" meant modest, having a proper sense of shame about the things that deserve it. The words did not mean looking embarrassed or caught out. What follows is a list of the things that should produce that feeling, a recognized form in ancient moral teaching; the qualification here is that not every kind of shame is worth keeping.

41:17

"Whoredom" is the King James word for sexual immorality generally, not only for prostitution. "Before father and mother" does not mean in their sight; the sense is that these are the people whose regard should hold you back in this matter. "Prince" in the King James means any ruler.

41:18

"Congregation" here means the assembled community acting as a public body, the townspeople or the nation gathered together, not a religious congregation in the modern sense.

41:19

To "sojourn" is to live somewhere as a resident foreigner, without the standing and protection that came from belonging to the place; theft there disgraced you as an outsider and endangered others like you. "To lean with thine elbow upon the meat" is about table manners: diners reclined or sat around shared dishes, and sprawling across the food on your elbow marked you as greedy. "Meat" again means food of any kind. "Scorning to give and take" means behaving contemptuously in ordinary dealings where goods are handed over and received.

41:20

"Salute" in the King James means to greet someone, not to make a military gesture. Failing to answer a greeting was a public insult.

41:21

A "kinsman" is a blood relative, a member of your extended family, who had a recognized claim on your help; turning your face away is refusing to acknowledge that claim. "To take away a portion or a gift" means withholding what is somebody's due, such as a share of food at a shared meal or a share in a distribution.

41:22

A "maid" is a female household slave or servant, part of a man's property and in no position to refuse; the warning is against interfering with her. "Upbraiding speeches" means reproaching or scolding words, and the last clause warns against giving someone a thing and then throwing it back at them afterward in conversation.

41:23

"Iterating" simply means repeating. The concern is passing on what was said to you in confidence.

41:24

"Find favour before all men" means to be well thought of by everybody. "Favour" here is other people's good opinion of you, not a kindness done for you.