Sirach 3:21

Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon

17 My child, perform your tasks with humility; then you will be loved by those whom God accepts. 18 The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself; so you will find favor in the sight of the Lord. 20 For great is the might of the Lord; but by the humble he is glorified. 21 Neither seek what is too difficult for you, nor investigate what is beyond your power. 22 Reflect upon what you have been commanded, for what is hidden is not your concern. 23 Do not meddle in matters that are beyond you, for more than you can understand has been shown you. 24 For their conceit has led many astray, and wrong opinion has impaired their judgment. 25 Without eyes there is no light; without knowledge there is no wisdom.

Chagigah 13a

Babylonian Talmud
Rabbinic

The Gemara comments: Until here, you have permission to speak; from this point forward you do not have permission to speak, as it is written in the book of Ben Sira: Seek not things concealed from you, nor search those hidden from you. Reflect on that which is permitted to you; you have no business with secret matters. It is taught in a baraita: Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai said: What response did the Divine Voice provide to that wicked man, Nebuchadnezzar, when he said: “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:14), thereby intending to rise to heaven? A Divine Voice came and said to him: Wicked man, son of a wicked man, descendant, i.e., follower of the ways, of Nimrod the wicked, who caused the entire world to rebel against Him during the time of his reign.

 Notes and References

"... Crescas, in his criticism of Aristotle, raises the same question of the existence of many worlds, and, though he quotes in discouragement of this kind of speculation Sirach's warning as it is reechoed in the Tannaitic statement against inquiring into 'what is above and what is below, what is before and what is be­ hind,' (Compare M. Hagigah 2:1, and Hagigah 13a, where Sirach 3: 21-22 is quoted) he also quotes in support of the plurality of worlds the same Talmudic statement with regard to God's riding on His swift cherub and roaming over eighteen thousand worlds ..."

Wolfson, Harry Austryn Philo Foundations of Religious Philosophy in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (p. 197) Harvard University Press, 1962

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