Ecclesiasticus 6: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The chapter opens with warnings against turning from a friend into an enemy and against praising yourself in your own thoughts, and then sorts friends into kinds: the friend who lasts only for an occasion, the friend who becomes an enemy, the table companion who disappears when trouble comes, and the faithful friend, who is called a treasure and a medicine of life. From verse 18 the teacher speaks to "my son" about wisdom, telling him to farm her like a field, to put his feet in her shackles and his neck in her chain, and promising that in the end those bonds become a strong covering and a robe of glory. It closes with instructions to stand among the elders, attach himself to a wise man, and keep his mind on the Lord's rules.

Claim by Claim

1. 6:1
   • One should not become an enemy in place of a friend
   • Doing so results in inheriting an ill name
   • Doing so results in shame
   • Doing so results in reproach
   • The sinner who has a double tongue comes to the same end
2. 6:2
   • One should not exalt oneself in the counsel of one's own soul
   • Exalting oneself in this way risks the soul being torn in pieces like a bull
   • The King James adds that the bull is straying alone
3. 6:3
   • The one who does so will eat up his own leaves
   • The one who does so will lose his fruit
   • The one who does so will leave himself like a dry tree
4. 6:4
   • A wicked soul destroys the one who possesses it
   • A wicked soul makes its possessor an object of mockery to his enemies
5. 6:5
   • Sweet speech multiplies a man's friends
   • A well-speaking tongue multiplies kind greetings
6. 6:6
   • Those at peace with you should be many
   • Your counsellors should be one out of a thousand
7. 6:7
   • If you would gain a friend, gain him through testing
   • Do not trust him quickly
8. 6:8
   • There is a friend who is a friend only for his own occasion
   • Such a friend will not remain with you in the day of your trouble
9. 6:9
   • There is a friend who turns into an enemy
   • Such a friend will expose strife to your reproach
10. 6:10
    • There is a friend who is only a companion at table
    • Such a friend will not remain with you in the day of your affliction
11. 6:11
    • In your prosperity such a friend will act as if he were you
    • Such a friend will be bold toward your servants
12. 6:12
    • If you are brought low, such a friend will be against you
    • Such a friend will hide himself from your face
13. 6:13
    • Separate yourself from your enemies
    • Be on guard concerning your friends
14. 6:14
    • A faithful friend is a strong shelter
    • Whoever has found a faithful friend has found a treasure
15. 6:15
    • There is nothing that can be exchanged for a faithful friend
    • There is no weighing of his excellence
16. 6:16
    • A faithful friend is a medicine of life
    • Those who fear the Lord will find such a friend
17. 6:17
    • The one who fears the Lord directs his friendship rightly
    • As a man is, so is his neighbour also
18. 6:18
    • The speaker addresses his son
    • The son is to gather instruction from his youth
    • He will find wisdom until his hair is grey
19. 6:19
    • Come to wisdom as one who ploughs and sows
    • Wait for wisdom's good fruits
    • In working at her you will toil only a little
    • You will soon eat of her produce
20. 6:20
    • Wisdom is very harsh to the untaught
    • The one without understanding will not remain with her
21. 6:21
    • Wisdom will rest on such a man like a heavy testing stone
    • He will not delay to cast her away from him
22. 6:22
    • Wisdom is according to her name
    • Wisdom is not manifest to many
23. 6:23
    • The son is to listen
    • The son is to receive the speaker's judgment
    • The son is not to refuse the speaker's counsel
24. 6:24
    • Put your feet into wisdom's fetters
    • Put your neck into wisdom's collar
25. 6:25
    • Put your shoulder under wisdom and carry her
    • Do not be vexed at her bonds
26. 6:26
    • Come to wisdom with your whole soul
    • Keep her ways with all your strength
27. 6:27
    • Track wisdom out and seek her
    • She will be made known to you
    • When you have taken hold of her, do not let her go
28. 6:28
    • At the last you will find wisdom's rest
    • Wisdom will be turned into gladness for you
29. 6:29
    • Wisdom's fetters will become a strong shelter for you
    • Wisdom's chains will become a robe of glory
    • The King James calls them chains where the Greek here has branches
30. 6:30
    • There is a golden ornament upon wisdom
    • Wisdom's bonds are a violet-blue thread
    • The King James calls the bonds purple lace
31. 6:31
    • You will put wisdom on as a robe of glory
    • You will place her on yourself as a crown of rejoicing
32. 6:32
    • If you are willing, you will be instructed
    • If you give your soul to it, you will be shrewd
    • The speaker addresses his son
33. 6:33
    • If you love to hear, you will receive
    • If you incline your ear, you will be wise
34. 6:34
    • Stand in the multitude of the elders
    • Attach yourself to whoever is wise
35. 6:35
    • Be willing to hear every godly discourse
    • Do not let proverbs of understanding escape you
36. 6:36
    • If you see a man of understanding, go to him early
    • Let your foot wear out the steps of his doors
37. 6:37
    • Keep your mind on the ordinances of the Lord
    • Meditate continually on his commandments
    • He will establish your heart
    • Your desire for wisdom will be given to you

Words Worth Explaining

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

6:1

A double tongue is one that says one thing to a person's face and another behind his back, or gives two different accounts of the same matter depending on who is listening. The Greek of the first line is compressed, and can also be read with the bad name itself as the thing that inherits the shame rather than the man.

6:2

"Soul" in this book normally means the self, the whole living person with its appetites and desires, rather than a spirit housed inside a body. The bull is an image of exposure: an animal that leaves the herd and grazes alone has nothing to protect it, and predators pull it down.

6:3

A tree with no leaves and no fruit is dead wood. It is good for nothing but burning.

6:4

"Soul" here means the person inside: what someone is really like, not just his body.

6:6

An adviser was someone you trusted with your secrets. "One of a thousand" means very, very few.

6:7

The Greek can be read two ways, and the difference matters: either test a man before you take him as a friend, or take as a friend only the man who has already been through a hard time at your side.

6:9

He tells other people about your quarrel. Then everyone knows things you wanted kept quiet.

6:10

Sharing a meal at a man's table created a real bond of obligation in this culture, so a table companion was understood to owe you loyalty. That is what makes his absence in trouble a betrayal and not just a disappointment.

6:11

Giving orders to another man's household servants was the act of the master of the house. The picture is of a friend who, while the money lasts, treats everything you own as his own.

6:12

"Hide from your face" is an old way of saying he keeps away from you.

6:13

The King James "take heed of thy friends" means be on your guard against them, not take care of them. In 1611 the phrase carried a warning, which is the opposite of how it reads now.

6:14

"Defence" here is not an argument or an excuse. It renders a word for a shelter or fortification, a place of cover you get behind when attacked.

6:15

The King James "countervail" means to equal in value, and its "invaluable" means beyond price, not lacking in value. Both words have drifted since 1611.

6:16

The Greek phrase behind "medicine of life" refers to a remedy that preserves life, the kind of drug or draught that saves a patient. "Fear the Lord" is a standing idiom in these books for reverence and the regard owed to God, not for being frightened of him.

6:17

The Greek line is terse and has been read in more than one way: either that a God-fearing man will have a friend of the same kind as himself, or that the way a man is determines what his friend becomes. The rendering leaves the ambiguity standing.

6:18

"My son" is how a wisdom teacher addressed his pupil. It does not require a literal father and child, and the same form of address runs through Proverbs.

6:19

Wisdom is grammatically feminine in both Hebrew and Greek, and this literature routinely speaks of her as a woman: one to be courted, followed and lived with. The "her" throughout the rest of the chapter is that figure, not a particular person.

6:20

The untaught person here is one who has never submitted to instruction and discipline, not one who is unintelligent.

6:21

A testing-stone was a heavy stone used to test a man's strength by seeing whether he could lift or carry it. The untrained man finds wisdom a weight he cannot hold, so he drops her.

6:22

This is a wordplay that does not survive translation. The Hebrew term for the training wisdom gives resembles a word meaning withdrawn or held back, so wisdom's very name is said to mark her as hidden from most people. The Greek and the English keep the claim but lose the pun.

6:23

Counsel is another word for advice.

6:24

Fetters and a neck chain were what was put on prisoners and slaves. The image is deliberately harsh: the discipline of learning begins as a restraint you submit to, and the same objects turn into jewelry in verses 29 to 31.

6:25

The picture is of a laborer or a pack animal taking a load on the shoulder. Wisdom is first carried as a burden before she is worn as an ornament.

6:29

The shackles and chain of verse 24 now become the gold and cloth of ceremonial dress. The same two words carry both pictures, and the reversal is the point of the passage.

6:30

Purple dye was extracted in tiny quantities from shellfish and was one of the most expensive substances in the ancient world, reserved for royal and priestly dress. Gold ornament and purple cord together describe the clothing of the highest rank.

6:31

Crowns were not only for kings. Guests at a feast and winners of contests wore wreaths on their heads.

6:33

"Bend your ear" means lean in close so you can hear well.

6:34

The elders were the older men of a town who settled disputes and taught by discussion in public. A young man learned by standing at the edge of that gathering and listening.

6:35

The King James "parables" here does not mean stories. It renders a word for proverbs and pointed sayings, the compressed maxims that wisdom teaching was carried in.

6:36

"Go to him early" translates a verb meaning to rise at daybreak in order to seek someone out, so it carries the sense of making him your first business of the day. Wearing down the steps at his door is an idiom for visiting so often that you literally wear the stone.

6:37

"The rules the Lord has given" and "his commands" both refer to the Law of Moses, the body of statutes given to Israel. Ben Sira uses the standard legal vocabulary of that Law here rather than general moral advice.