Sirach 7:34
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus30 With all your might love your Maker, and do not neglect his ministers. 31 Fear the Lord and honor the priest, and give him his portion, as you have been commanded: the first fruits, the guilt offering, the gift of the shoulders, the sacrifice of sanctification, and the first fruits of the holy things. 32 Stretch out your hand to the poor, so that your blessing may be complete. 33 Give graciously to all the living; do not withhold kindness even from the dead. 34 Do not avoid those who weep, but mourn with those who mourn. 35 Do not hesitate to visit the sick, because for such deeds you will be loved. 36 In all you do, remember the end of your life, and then you will never sin.
Romans 12:15
10 Be devoted to one another with mutual love, showing eagerness in honoring one another. 11 Do not lag in zeal, be enthusiastic in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints, pursue hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly. Do not be conceited.
Notes and References
"... In Romans 12:4-13, the kind of piety stressed in previous lines as due to the Jewish god (defined in special insider terms as the father of Jesus, and at times conveniently indistinguishable as here in Romans 12:12 from Jesus as “Lord”) is further described in terms of qualified positive engagement with common first-century Greco-Roman Jewish ideals. The stress on proper holy “zeal” expressed in prayerful obedience recalls the Jewish insider ideals and identities promoted in the Maccabean letters, and as some commentators have noticed, the reference to meeting “the needs of the saints” strongly connotes community support for relatively underprivileged Jewish insiders, potentially in terms of future offerings for “the saints” in Jerusalem (like the one promoted later as important in Romans 15:25-31), help for local Roman Jewish insiders targeted by the emperor Claudius, etc. As noted by Jewett and others, the kind of ideal insider excellence of character and behavior expressed in Romans 12:14-18 in terms of humility, rejoicing with those who rejoice, and weeping with those who weep (seen above to be in line with Greco-Roman ideals) also has suggestive traditional Jewish parallels (Jewett cites here Sirach 7:34: “Do not withdraw yourself from weepers, and mourn with mourners”). The fact that such traditional Jewish values and exhortation are specifically directed here at promoting practical community mutuality and solidarity of a kind seen to be appropriate to the service of association networks ... underlines yet again the community-defining focus and function of the passage and the letter ..."
Ricker, Aaron Ancient Letters and the Purpose of Romans (pp. 137-138) T&T Clark International, 2020