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Sirach

Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus

About this book
Chapter 17

1 The Lord created mankind out of earth, and turned them back to it again. 2 He gave them days by number, and a set time, and gave them authority over the things that are on it. 3 He endowed them with strength proper to them, and made them according to his own image.⁠ 4 He put the fear of man upon all flesh, and gave him dominion over beasts and birds. 6 He gave them counsel, tongue, eyes, ears, and heart to have understanding. 7 He filled them with the knowledge of wisdom, and showed them good and evil. 8 He set his eye upon their hearts, to show them the majesty of his works. 10 And they will praise his holy name, that they may declare the majesty of his works. 11 He added to them knowledge, and gave them a law of life for a heritage. 12 He made an everlasting covenant with them, and showed them his decrees. 13 Their eyes saw the majesty of his glory. Their ears heard the glory of his voice. 14 He said to them, “Beware of all unrighteousness.” So he gave them commandment, each man concerning his neighbor. 15 Their ways are ever before him. They will not be hidden from his eyes. 17 For every nation he appointed a ruler, but Israel is the Lord’s portion.⁠ 19 All their works are as clear as the sun before him. His eyes are continually upon their ways. 20 Their iniquities are not hidden from him. All their sins are before the Lord. 22 With him the alms of a man is as a signet. He will keep a man’s kindness as the pupil of the eye. 23 Afterwards he will rise up and repay them, and give their repayment upon their head. 24 However to those who repent he grants a return. He comforts those who are losing hope. 25 Return to the Lord, and forsake sins. Make your prayer before his face offend less.⁠ 26 Turn again to the Most High, and turn away from iniquity. Greatly hate the abominable thing. 27 Who will give praise to the Most High in Hades, in place of the living who return thanks? 28 Thanksgiving perishes from the dead, as from one who doesn’t exist. He who is in life and health will praise the Lord. 29 How great is the mercy of the Lord, and his forgiveness to those who turn to him! 30 For humans are not capable of everything, because the son of man is not immortal. 31 What is brighter than the sun? Yet even this can be eclipsed. So flesh and blood devise evil. 32 He looks upon the power of the height of heaven, while all men are earth and ashes.

Texts in conversation

Compare Sirach 17:17 and Jubilees 15:31

Deuterocanon · Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions

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Summary

Sirach echoes Deuteronomy 32, describing how God gave each nation its own divine rule and was Israel's patron deity. Jubilees builds on this tradition, describing those rulers as divine spirits who lead the nations away from God.

Passages

Sirach 17:17

Deuterocanon · Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
14 He said to them, “Beware of all unrighteousness.” So he gave them commandment, each man concerning his neighbor. 15 Their ways are ever before him. They will not be hidden from his eyes. 17 For every nation he appointed a ruler, but Israel is the Lord’s portion. 19 All their works are as clear as the sun before him. His eyes are continually upon their ways. 20 Their iniquities are not hidden from him. All their sins are before the Lord.
195–180 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Sirach

Jubilees 15:31

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
30 For Ishmael and his sons and his brothers and Esau, the Lord did not bring near to Him, and he did not choose them because they are the children of Abraham, because He knew them, but He chose Israel to be His people. 31 And He sanctified it, and gathered it from among all the human beings; for there are many nations and many peoples, and all are His, and over all He has placed spirits in authority to lead them astray from Him. 32 But over Israel He did not appoint any angel or spirit, for He alone is their ruler, and He will preserve them and protect them from His angels and His spirits, and from all His powers in order that He may preserve them and bless them, and that they may be His and He may be theirs from now on forever. 33 And now I announce to you that the children of Israel will not keep true to this ordinance, and they will not circumcise their sons according to all this commandment; for in the flesh of their circumcision they will omit this circumcision of their sons, and all of them, sons of Beliar, will leave their sons uncircumcised as they were born.
170–125 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jubilees

References

... Already in the decades prior to the crisis precipitated by the reforms introduced by Antiochus Epiphanes, Jesus ben Sira includes in a passage mainly concerned with anthropology the observation that God ‘appointed a ruler for every nation, but Israel is the Lord's own portion’ (Sirach 17:17). This parallels exactly the original text of Deuteronomy 32.8-9. Interestingly, a couple of late Greek manuscripts, minuscules 70 and 248, make the reference at Sirach 17:17 more precise, adding at the beginning of this sentence the notice that ‘[f]or at the division of the nations of all the earth, he appointed a ruler...’ This should be probably regarded as a later gloss, but necessarily a particularly late one ...
Darrell D. Hannah, “Guardian Angels and Angelic National Patrons in Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity,” in Angels: The Concept of Celestial Beings - Origins, Development and Reception, ed. Friedrich V. Reiterer (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2007), 418.

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 17:17 and Jubilees 15:31

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