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Sirach warns that the children of an adulteress will not endure, using images of withered branches to show broken family lines. Wisdom of Solomon repeats this image and applies it more broadly to the fate of the unrighteous.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 23:25
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
23 For first, she was disobedient in the law of the Most High. Second, she trespassed against her own husband. Third, she played the adulteress in fornication, and had children by another man. 24 She shall be brought out into the congregation. Her punishment will extend to her children. 25 Her children will not take root. Her branches will bear no fruit. 26 She will leave her memory for a curse. Her reproach won’t be blotted out. 27 And those who are left behind will know that there is nothing better than the fear of the Lord, and nothing sweeter than to heed the commandments of the Lord.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Wisdom of Solomon 4:3
Deuterocanon
1 It is better to be childless with virtue, for immortality is in the memory of virtue, because it is recognized both before God and before men. 2 When it is present, people imitate it. They long after it when it has departed. Throughout all time it marches, crowned in triumph, victorious in the competition for the prizes that are undefiled. 3 But the multiplying brood of the ungodly will be of no profit, and their illegitimate offshoots won’t take deep root, nor will they establish a sure hold. 4 For even if they grow branches and flourish for a season, standing unsure, they will be shaken by the wind. They will be uprooted by the violence of winds. 5 Their branches will be broken off before they come to maturity. Their fruit will be useless, never ripe to eat, and fit for nothing.
Date: 50 BCE – 50 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... According to Sirach 23:24-25 the acts of the woman have an effect on her children, who 'will not take root' (23:25). A similar image is used in Isaiah 37:31; Hosea 2:4; Malachi 4:1 and Wisdom of Solomon 4:3-6. Wisdom claims in her self-praise in Sirach 24:12 that she 'took root among a glorified people': she is part of the community of Israel. As Deuteronomy 23:3 attests, a child born from a prohibited union, termed a ('bastard'), cannot enter the assembly of the Lord. Lipka points out that in the context of the Decalogue (Exodus 20:2-17; Deuteronomy 5:6-21) it may be argued that God will visit the sin of those who violate his commandments, including the commandment that prohibits adultery, upon several generations of their descendants (Exodus 20:5; Deuteronomy 5:9). Similarly, in Sirach 23:24-25 the punishment of the adulteress will go beyond her to affect future generations. In the case of the sage in whose eyes one's name is continued in one's good reputation and family, this hope may be destroyed through adultery ..."
Ibolya Balla, Ben Sira on Family, Gender, and Sexuality, DCLS 8 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 2011), 136.
* 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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