Texts in Conversation
Sirach compares learning wisdom to sowing a crop and waiting for a good harvest. In 4Q213 from the Dead Sea Scrolls, Levi uses the same farming image to teach his sons that good conduct brings a good return.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 6:18-20
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
18 My child, from your youth choose discipline, and when you have gray hair you will still find wisdom. 19 Come to her like one who plows and sows, and wait for her good harvest. For when you cultivate her you will toil but little, and soon you will eat of her produce. 20 She seems very harsh to the undisciplined; fools cannot remain with her.
4Q213 1:6-11
Aramaic Levi a
Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical Retellings
6 [give instruction, my sons, and I show you the truth, my beloved. Let the chief] of all your deeds 7 [be truth, and let it remain with] you [forever.] Righteousness and truth 8 [… you will bring in a blessed harvest.] Whoever sows good brings in good, 9 [and whoever sows evil, his seed returns upon] him. And now, reading and instruction and wisdom 10 [teach to your sons, and wisdom will be with you] as eternal honor. Whoever learns wisdom, honor 11 [is his; but whoever despises wisdom] is given over to contempt and scorn. Look, my sons,
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Notes and References
“... The idea that wisdom has a good harvest is prominent in
ben Sira 6:19–20, “Come to her like one who plows and sows, and
wait for her good harvest. For when you cultivate her you will toil
but little, and soon you will eat of her produce.” ...”
Greenfield, Jonas C.
The Aramaic Levi Document: Edition, Translation, Commentary
(p. 208) Brill, 2004
* 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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