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The Greek Septuagint translation of Proverbs 26 includes a line taken from Sirach, showing that the Septuagint translator or editor thought Sirach was important enough to add it to the biblical text.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Proverbs 26:11
Hebrew Bible
10 Like an archer who wounds at random, so is the one who hires a fool or hires any passerby. 11 Like a dog that returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly. 12 You have seen a man wise in his own opinion— there is more hope for a fool than for him. 13 The sluggard has said, “There is a lion in the road! A lion in the streets!”
Date: 600–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Sirach 4:21
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
20 Watch for the opportunity, and beware of evil. Don’t be ashamed of your soul. 21 For there is a shame that brings sin, and there is a shame that is glory and grace. 22 Don’t show partiality, discrediting your soul. Don’t revere any man to your falling. 23 Don’t refrain from speaking when it is for safety. Don’t hide your wisdom for the sake of seeming fair.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Proverbs 26:11a
Septuagint
9 Thorns grow in the hand of a drunkard, and servitude in the hand of fools. 10 All the flesh of fools endures much hardship; for their fury is brought to nothing. 11 As when a dog goes to his own vomit, and becomes abominable, so is a fool who returns in his wickedness to his own sin. 11a There is a shame that brings sin: and there is a shame that is glory and grace. 12 I have seen a man who seemed to himself to be wise; but a fool had more hope than he.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... LXX Proverbs 26:11a ... ἔστιν αἰσχύνη ἐπάγουσα ἁμαρτίαν,/καὶ ἔστιν αἰσχύνη δόξακαὶχάρις,“shame is bringing on sin, and shame is glory and grace.” This verse has found its way into the Septuagint of Proverbs from Sirach 4:21; there is no Hebrew text corresponding to it in Proverbs. To understand the rather paradoxical assertion of this verse, we need to remember that αἰσχύνη in Greek has both a negative and a positive meaning, namely “disgrace” and “(sense of) shame” or “modesty”. In the one sense it can be said to bring on sin, and in the other it can be said to be a person’s glory and grace. In its original context in Sirach the verse occurs at the beginning of a section (Sirach 4:20–28) devoted to true and false shame ..."
Albert M. Wolters, Septuagint Commentary Series: Proverbs (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 250.
* 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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