Texts in Conversation
Proverbs says that talking too much can lead to making mistakes, but that wisdom is shown by speaking with restraint. Sirach builds on this wisdom saying, describing how a wise person shows their insight by choosing what they say carefully.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Proverbs 10:19
Hebrew Bible
17 The one who heeds instruction is on the way to life, but the one who rejects rebuke goes astray. 18 The one who conceals hatred utters lies, and the one who spreads slander is certainly a fool. 19 When words abound, transgression is inevitable, but the one who restrains his words is wise. 20 What the righteous say is like the best silver, but what the wicked think is of little value. 21 The teaching of the righteous feeds many, but fools die for lack of sense.
Date: 600–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Sirach 20:8
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
6 There is one who keeps silent, for he has no answer to make; And there is one who keeps silent, knowing when to speak. 7 A wise man will be silent until his time has come, but the braggart and fool will miss his time. 8 He who uses many words will be abhorred. He who takes authority for himself will be hated in it. 9 There is a prosperity that a man finds in misfortunes; and there is a gain that turns to loss. 10 There is a gift that will not profit you; and there is a gift that pays back double.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... As a contrast with the rich person whose words are “loathsome,” Ben Sira takes the case of a pauper who “will speak giving insight”. The word is the hiphil masculine participle from the root (“have insight,” “be prosperous”); the cognate noun (“insight”) occurs in 13:23. The exact syntactic function in 13:22 is uncertain. It could refer to what is spoken, since the form occurs thirteen times in the Masoretic text as a title for various psalms, possibly in the sense of “didactic poem” or “skillful composition.” However, the uncertainty over the meaning as a psalm title makes this suggestion suspect, and so it seems better to understand the word as describing the action of a person “giving insight.” In the book of Proverbs the participle refers to “one giving insight” or “an insightful person”; for example, Proverbs 10:19 teaches: “One who restrains his words is an insightful person” (compare Prov 15:24) ..."
Jeremy Corley, Ben Sira's Teaching on Friendship (Providence, RI: Brown Judaic Studies, 2020), 149.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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