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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 Leviticus 20:10 and Sirach 23:21

Hebrew Bible · Deuterocanon

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Summary

Leviticus demands death for adultery, presenting it as a capital crime within Israel’s legal code. Sirach echoes this, condemning adultery in similar terms, but is not explicit about requiring execution, instead saying the act will be exposed and judged.

Passages

Leviticus 20:10

Hebrew Bible
8 You must be sure to obey my statutes. I am the Lord who sanctifies you. 9 “‘If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or mother; his blood guilt is on himself. 10 If a man commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death. 11 If a man goes to bed with his father’s wife, he has exposed his father’s nakedness. Both of them must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves. 12 If a man goes to bed with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. They have committed perversion; their blood guilt is on themselves.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

Sirach 23:21

Deuterocanon · Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
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.
195–180 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Sirach

References

"... In the numerical proverb of Sirach 23:16-17 the author sums up the persons or activities that are despicable and cause anger. The first comment on the burning passion is not further specified ("Burning passion is like blazing fire, it will never be quenched until it burns itself out/is consumed"). Nothing indicates whether the person is married, nor what is the object of his passion. In the second element of the proverb, as noted above, behind the Hebrew term is assumed to mean "blood relation" ("The person who commits sexual wrongdoing literally in the body of his flesh, will never cease until the fire burns out"). We find the expression in Leviticus 18:6 and 25:49. The former is part of the incest laws in Leviticus 18:6-18; similar instructions are found also in Leviticus 20:11-12, 14, 17, 19-21. In none of these instances does the LXX use the Greek term of Sirach 23:16. All these instructions deal with a punishable act of a sexual nature and assume that the transgressors are in kinship, whether they live in the same household or not ... it is likely that adultery was not always detected either in pre or in postexilic times, including the time of Ben Sira. It seems, however, that the author anticipates a divine intervention when he points out that even if the man is foolish enough to think that his actions will not be discovered, the Lord, who created everything and therefore knows everything, will see his actions (23:19-20). Therefore the adulterer should be afraid of his sins. Somehow or other the man is apprehended at the end. God's judgment is perhaps not immediate but operates according to its own timetable. 23:21 does not disclose anything about the penalty. The death penalty was probably not in force anymore ..."
Ibolya Balla, Ben Sira on Family, Gender, and Sexuality, DCLS 8 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 2011), 131–134.

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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Leviticus 20:10 and Sirach 23:21

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