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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 Sirach 23:6 and Augustine, Confessions 10.31

Deuterocanon · Early Christian

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Summary

Sirach describes a prayer for protection from lust, a prayer the Christian theologian Augustine echoes in the Confessions when reflecting on his struggle with desire, highlighting how he used Sirach as an authoritative source for teaching.

Passages

Sirach 23:6

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

Augustine, Confessions 10.31

Early Christian
I heard still another voice: "For I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content with it. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. . .. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." See here a soldier of the heavenly army; not the sort of dust we are. But remember, Lord, "that we are dust" and that you created man out of the dust, and that he "was lost, and is found." Of course, he [the apostle Paul] could not do all this by his own power. He was of the same dust—he whom I loved so much and who spoke of these things through the afflatus of your inspiration: "I can," he said, "do all things through him who strengthens me." Strengthen me, so that I too may be able. Give what you command, and command what you will. This man [Paul] confesses that he received the gift of grace and that, when he glories, he glories in the Lord. I have heard yet another voice praying that he might receive. "Take from me," he said, "the greediness of the belly." And from this it appears, my holy God, that you give it, when what you command to be done is done.
397–400 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Augustine, Confessions 10

References

"... As to Augustine’s use of the Book of Ecclesiasticus, it is striking that more than once he quotes a text that is somewhat different from the Vetus Latina, which for the Book of Ben Sira, serves as the traditional Latin text. Since Augustine’s quotations from the Book of Ben Sira have more than once been brought in line with the Greek translation, a thorough investigation into this phenomenon is needed in order to find out whether he had (some) knowledge of the Greek text of the Book of Ecclesiasticus. Apart from Speculum in which Augustine for his quotations from the Book of Ben Sira usually follows the Latin, in his other works he rather frequently appears to correct the Latin Ben Sira quotations according to the Greek. An investigation into this intriguing question would be very useful. Such an in depth inquiry should also take into full consideration whether, and to what extent, St. Augustine has been influenced by a text type of Ecclesiasticus that was already used by St. Cyprian and has even been given its own siglum (K) by Thiele ..."
Pancratius C. Beentjes, “Saint Augustine's Sermons 38-41 on the Book of Ben Sira,” in The Scriptures of Israel in Jewish and Christian Tradition: Essays in Honour of Maarten J. J. Menken, ed. Bart Koet, Steven Moyise, and Joseph Verheyden, NovTSup 148 (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 81–94.

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 23:6 and Augustine, Confessions 10.31

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