Texts in Conversation
Sirach quotes Exodus 34, one of the most repeated descriptions of God in the Hebrew Bible and Jewish tradition. By recalling divine patience and covenant loyalty revealed in the Torah, Sirach connects itself to this core image of mercy and loyalty.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 34:6
Hebrew Bible
5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the Lord by name. 6 The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, 7 keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.” 8 Moses quickly bowed to the ground and worshiped 9 and said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, let my Lord go among us, for we are a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Sirach 5:5
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
4 Don’t say, “I sinned, and what happened to me?” for the Lord is patient. 5 Don’t be so confident of atonement that you add sin upon sins. 6 Don’t say, “His compassion is great. He will be pacified for the multitude of my sins,” for mercy and wrath are with him, and his indignation will rest on sinners. 7 Don’t wait to turn to the Lord. Don’t put off from day to day; for suddenly the wrath of the Lord will come on you, and you will perish in the time of vengeance.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Exodus 34:6–7 influenced the Hebrew Bible profoundly, and resemblances are found in many post-Biblical Jewish texts. (See: Wisdom of Solomon 15:1, Sirach 2:10-11, 5:5, 50:19, Baruch 2:27, 2 Baruch 77:7, etc...) It would not be surprising, then, if the New Testament follows this trajectory. While many words (and their synonyms) from YHWH’s revelation appear throughout the New Testament, it contains no extended quotations. Nevertheless, the texts with these lexical links may unconsciously allude to theologically loaded words in Exodus 34:6–7 ..."
Austin Surls, Making Sense of the Divine Name in the Book of Exodus: From Etymology to Literary Onomastics, BBRSup 17 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2017), 194–195.
* 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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