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Sirach

Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus

About this book
Chapter 23

1 O Lord, Father and Master of my life, don’t abandon me to their counsel. Don’t let me fall because of them. 2 Who will set scourges over my thought, and a discipline of wisdom over my heart, that they do not spare me for my errors, and not overlook their sins? 3 Otherwise my errors might be multiplied, and my sins abound, I fall before my adversaries, and my enemy rejoice over me. 4 O Lord, Father and God of my life, don’t give me a haughty eyes,⁠ 5 and turn away evil desire from me. 6 Let neither gluttony nor lust overtake me. Don’t give me over to a shameless mind.⁠ 7 Listen, my children, to the discipline of the mouth. He who keeps it will not be caught.⁠ 8 The sinner will be overpowered through his lips. By them, the insulter and the arrogant will stumble. 9 Don’t accustom your mouth to an oath, and don’t be accustomed to naming the Holy One,⁠ 10 for as a servant who is continually scourged will not lack bruises, so he also who swears and continually utters the Name will not be cleansed from sin. 11 A man of many oaths will be filled with iniquity. The scourge will not depart from his house. If he offends, his sin will be upon him. If he disregards it, he has sinned doubly. If he has sworn falsely, he will not be justified, for his house will be filled with calamities. 12 There is a manner of speech that is clothed with death. Let it not be found in the heritage of Jacob, for all these things will be far from the godly, and they will not wallow in sins. 13 Don’t accustom your mouth to gross rudeness, for it involves sinful speech. 14 Remember your father and your mother, for you sit in the midst of great men, that you not be forgetful before them, and become a fool by your bad habit; so you may wish that you had not been born, and curse the day of your birth. 15 A man who is accustomed to abusive language won’t be corrected all the days of his life. 16 Two sorts of people multiply sins, and the third will bring wrath: a hot passion, like a burning fire, will not be quenched until it is consumed; a fornicator in the body of his flesh will never cease until he has burned out the fire. 17 All bread is sweet to a fornicator. He will not cease until he dies. 18 A man who goes astray from his own marriage bed says in his heart, “Who sees me? Darkness is around me, and the walls hide me. No one sees me. Of whom am I afraid? The Most High will not remember my sins.”⁠ 19 The eyes of men are his terror. He doesn’t know that the eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun,⁠ seeing all the ways of men, and looking into secret places.⁠ 20 All things were known to him before they were created, and also after they were completed. 21 This man will be punished in the streets of the city. He will be seized where he least expects it.⁠ 22 So also is a wife who leaves her husband, and produces an heir by another man. 23 For first, she was disobedient in the law of the Most High. Second, she trespassed against her own husband. Third, she played the adulteress in fornication, and had children by another man. 24 She shall be brought out into the congregation. Her punishment will extend to her children. 25 Her children will not take root. Her branches will bear no fruit.⁠ 26 She will leave her memory for a curse. Her reproach won’t be blotted out. 27 And those who are left behind will know that there is nothing better than the fear of the Lord, and nothing sweeter than to heed the commandments of the Lord.

Texts in conversation

Compare Letter of Aristeas 132 and Sirach 23:19

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions · Deuterocanon

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Summary

The Letter of Aristeas says Moses taught that nothing people do in private escapes God's knowledge, even what is still to come. Sirach 23 makes the same point with an adulterer who thinks the dark hides him, not knowing that God's eyes see everything.

Passages

Letter of Aristeas 132

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions · Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates
punishments inflicted by God on the guilty. For he proved first of all that there is only one God and that his power is manifested throughout the universe, since every place is filled with his sovereignty and none of the things which are done in secret by men on the earth escapes His knowledge. For all that a man does and all that is to come to pass in the future are manifest to Him. Working out these truths carefully and having made them plain he showed that even if a man should think of doing evil - to say nothing of actually effecting it -
200–150 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Letter of Aristeas

Sirach 23:19

Deuterocanon · Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
18 A man who goes astray from his own marriage bed says in his heart, “Who sees me? Darkness is around me, and the walls hide me. No one sees me. Of whom am I afraid? The Most High will not remember my sins.” 19 The eyes of men are his terror. He doesn’t know that the eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun, seeing all the ways of men, and looking into secret places. 20 All things were known to him before they were created, and also after they were completed. 21 This man will be punished in the streets of the city. He will be seized where he least expects it.
195–180 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Sirach

References

“... Ps.-Aristeas says that Moses has demonstrated God’s omniscience “throughout the entire legislation.” We find this same idea – that God sees and knows all – in other early Jewish texts. It is an important aspect of God in Sirach, the quintessential statement of which is 23:18–20 where Ben Sira speaks about the adulterer: 18. There is a person who transgresses against this bed, saying in his soul, ‘Who will see me? Darkness surrounds me, and the walls will hide me, and no one sees me. Why am I discreet? The Most High will never remember my sins.’ 19. And people’s eyes are his fear, and he was unaware that the eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun, as they look upon all the ways of human beings and as they look into obscure parts. 20. Before all things were created, they were known to him, so also after they were completed (NETS). ...”
Benjamin G. Wright III, The Letter of Aristeas: ‘Aristeas to Philocrates’ or ‘On the Translation of the Law of the Jews’ (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015), 254.

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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Letter of Aristeas 132 and Sirach 23:19

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