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Sirach

Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus

About this book
Chapter 15

1 He who fears the Lord will do this. He who has possession of the law will obtain her.⁠ 2 She will meet him like a mother, and receive him like a wife married in her virginity.⁠ 3 She will feed him with bread of understanding and give him water of wisdom to drink. 4 He will be stayed upon her, and will not be moved. He will rely upon her, and will not be confounded. 5 She will exalt him above his neighbors. She will open his mouth in the midst of the congregation. 6 He will inherit joy, a crown of gladness, and an everlasting name. 7 Foolish men will not obtain her. Sinners will not see her. 8 She is far from pride. Liars will not remember her. 9 Praise is not attractive in the mouth of a sinner; for it was not sent to him from the Lord.⁠ 10 For praise will be spoken in wisdom; The Lord will prosper it.

Human Freedom and Responsibility

11 Don’t say, “It is through the Lord that I fell away;” for you shall not do the things that he hates.⁠ 12 Don’t say, “It is he that caused me to err;” for he has no need of a sinful man. 13 The Lord hates every abomination; and those who fear him don’t love them.⁠ 14 He himself made man from the beginning and left him in the hand of his own counsel.⁠ 15 If you choose, you can keep the commandments. To be faithful is a matter of your choice. 16 He has set fire and water before you. You will stretch forth your hand to whichever you desire. 17 Before man is life and death. Whichever he likes, it will be given to him.⁠ 18 For the wisdom of the Lord is great. He is mighty in power, and sees all things. 19 His eyes are upon those who fear him. He knows every act of man. 20 He has not commanded any man to be ungodly. He has not given any man license to sin.

Texts in conversation

Compare Sirach 15:14 and Genesis Rabbah 9:7

Deuterocanon · Rabbinic

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Summary

Sirach describes humans given the capacity for free choice, a description also found in Rabbinic tradition in Genesis Rabbah, where the “yetzer” or inclination, is used to emphasize freedom and responsibility in choosing between opposing paths.

Passages

Sirach 15:14

Deuterocanon · Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
11 Don’t say, “It is through the Lord that I fell away;” for you shall not do the things that he hates. 12 Don’t say, “It is he that caused me to err;” for he has no need of a sinful man. 13 The Lord hates every abomination; and those who fear him don’t love them. 14 He himself made man from the beginning and left him in the hand of his own counsel. 15 If you choose, you can keep the commandments. To be faithful is a matter of your choice. 16 He has set fire and water before you. You will stretch forth your hand to whichever you desire.
195–180 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Sirach

Genesis Rabbah 9:7

Rabbinic · Aggadah
Rabbi Naḥman bar Shmuel bar Naḥman said in the name of Rav Shmuel bar Naḥman: “Behold it was very good” – this is the good inclination; “and behold it was very good” – this is the evil inclination. Is the evil inclination, then, very good? This is a rhetorical question. Rather, were it not for the evil inclination, a man would never build a house, would never marry a wife, would never beget children, and would never engage in commerce. Likewise, Solomon says: “[And I have considered all toil and all excelling in work,] that it is each man’s envy of his counterpart” (Ecclesiastes 4:4).
500 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis Rabbah

References

"... The starting point for a study of Syriac usage of yaṣrā is the small collection of biblical passages in the Peshitta that use the word, namely Genesis 6:5, 8:21b, and Deuteronomy 31:21a. In each of these passages the Syriac yaṣrā renders the Hebrew yetzer. It is also found in three passages in Sirach, which was included in the Peshitta biblical canon, and was translated into Syriac from Hebrew (rather than Greek). In the first of these, Sirach 15:14, the Hebrew text is preserved, and includes the term yetzer. In the other two passages, Sirach 17:31 and 21:11, the Hebrew is now lost. However, the presence of yaṣrā in these passages is strong evidence that the lost Hebrew verses also contained yetzer. This is significant, not just because it adds a few more references to our list of citations, but also because these verses provided early readers with further information about the yaṣrā. While the Genesis passages emphasize the habitual and protracted wickedness of the human yaṣrā, Sirach 17:31 introduces the possibility that the yaṣrā can be subdued (kbaš) - and this I presume is also the origin of the rabbinic tradition that the yetzer can be subdued (כבשׁ) - and Sirach 21:11 states that the one who keeps the law restrains (ā leṣ) his yetzer ..."
David G. K. Taylor, “‘Inclination’ (yasra) in the Syriac Tradition,” in The Evil Inclination in Early Judaism and Christianity, ed. James Aitken, Hector M. Patmore, and Ishay Rosen-Zvi (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 262–279.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Sirach 15:14 and Genesis Rabbah 9:7

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