Sirach 18:13
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus11 That is why the Lord is patient with them and pours out his mercy upon them. 12 He sees and recognizes that their end is miserable; therefore he grants them forgiveness all the more. 13 The compassion of human beings is for their neighbors, but the compassion of the Lord is for every living thing. He rebukes and trains and teaches them, and turns them back, as a shepherd his flock. 14 He has compassion on those who accept his discipline and who are eager for his precepts. 15 My child, do not mix reproach with your good deeds, or spoil your gift by harsh words.
Origen Contra Celsum 4.28
Against CelsusFor Your incorruptible Spirit is in all. And therefore those also who have fallen away for a little time You rebuke, and admonish, reminding them of their sins. How can we assert that God, leaving the regions of heaven, and the whole world, and despising this great earth, takes up His abode among us only, when we have found that all thoughtful persons must say in their prayers, that the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord, and that the mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh; and that God, being good, makes His sun to arise upon the evil and the good, and sends His rain upon the just and the unjust; and that He encourages us to a similar course of action, in order that we may become His sons, and teaches us to extend the benefits which we enjoy, so far as in our power, to all men? For He Himself is said to be the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe; and His Christ to be the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Notes and References
"... The Hebrew of Ben Sira was not included in the Jewish biblical canon. Testimony to its survival, however, is found in the numerous quotations of the book in rabbinic literature. Of course, the medieval manuscripts discovered in the Cairo Genizah constitute prima facie evidence for its continued existence in Hebrew. The Greek translation seems to have been in uential in early Christianity, and it eventually was included in the Christian Old Testament (only to be excised by Protestants in the sixteenth century). Sirach is not cited explicitly in the New Testament, and scholars differ as to how much in uence it had on the New Testament writings. Those who see broad influence have argued for it primarily in Matthew, Luke, some of Paul’s letters and the Epistle of James (compare Harrington, Invitation, p. 90; Schürer, History, vol. III.1, pp. 205–208). In other early Christian literature, Didache 4:5 and Barnabas 19:9 bear a very close resemblance to, and perhaps are taken from, Sirach 4:31. If these texts do depend on Sirach, they would be the earliest examples of direct Christian use of the book. A healthy number of Greek and Latin church fathers, including Clement of Alexandria, Origen, John Chrysostom, Tertullian, Jerome and Augustine, use Sirach in their writings, and as early as Clement of Alexandria Sirach is cited as scripture, demonstrating the high regard the book came to have in Christian tradition ..."
Ryan, Daniel "Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)" in Aitken, J. K. (ed.) T&T Clark Companion to the Septuagint (pp. 410-424) T&T Clark International, 2015