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Sirach

Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus

About this book
Chapter 35

1 He who keeps the law multiplies offerings. 2 He who heeds the commandments sacrifices a peace offering. 3 He who returns a kindness offers fine flour. 4 He who gives alms sacrifices a thank offering. 5 To depart from wickedness pleases the Lord. To depart from unrighteousness is an atoning sacrifice. 6 See that you don’t appear in the presence of the Lord empty. 7 For all these things are done because of the commandment. 8 The offering of the righteous enriches the altar. The sweet fragrance of it is before the Most High. 9 The sacrifice of a righteous man is acceptable. It won’t be forgotten. 10 Glorify the Lord with generosity. Don’t reduce the first fruits of your hands. 11 In every gift show a cheerful face, and dedicate your tithe with gladness.⁠ 12 Give to the Most High according as he has given. As your hand has found, give generously. 13 For the Lord repays, and he will repay you sevenfold. 14 Don’t plan to bribe him with gifts, for he will not receive them. 15 Don’t set your mind on an unrighteous sacrifice, For the Lord is the judge, and with him is no respect of persons.⁠ 16 He won’t accept any person against a poor man. He will listen to the prayer of him who is wronged. 17 He will in no way despise the supplication of the fatherless or the widow, when she pours out her tale.⁠ 18 Don’t the tears of the widow run down her cheek? 19 Isn’t her cry against him who has caused them to fall? 20 He who serves God according to his good pleasure will be accepted. His supplication will reach to the clouds. 21 The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds. until it comes near, he will not be comforted. He won’t depart until the Most High visits and he judges righteously and executes judgment.⁠ 22 And the Lord will not be slack, neither will he be patient toward them, until he has crushed the loins of the unmerciful.⁠ 23 He will repay vengeance to the nations until he has taken away the multitude of the arrogant and broken in pieces the sceptres of the unrighteous, 24 until he has rendered to every man according to his deeds, and repaid the works of men according to their plans, 25 until he has judged the cause of his people, and he will make them rejoice in his mercy. 26 Mercy is as welcome in the time of his affliction, as clouds of rain in the time of drought.

Texts in conversation

Compare Exodus 15:3 and Sirach 35:22

Hebrew Bible · Deuterocanon

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Summary

Sirach 35 portrays God as a warrior who protects Israel and defeats its enemies, echoing Exodus 15. Its language matches the Hebrew version, which depicts God as a warrior deity, unlike the Greek Septuagint translation that softens this image.

Passages

Exodus 15:3

Hebrew Bible
1 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord. They said, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea. 2 The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. 3 The Lord is a man of war10— the Lord is his name. 4 The chariots of Pharaoh and his army he has thrown into the sea, and his chosen officers were drowned in the Red Sea.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

Sirach 35:22

Deuterocanon · Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
21 The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds. until it comes near, he will not be comforted. He won’t depart until the Most High visits and he judges righteously and executes judgment. 22 And the Lord will not be slack, neither will he be patient toward them, until he has crushed the loins of the unmerciful. 23 He will repay vengeance to the nations until he has taken away the multitude of the arrogant and broken in pieces the sceptres of the unrighteous,
195–180 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Sirach

References

"... One other aspect of Sirach 35:22–36:22 commends my interpretation of the function of the prayer in the book of Sirach as a whole: the Divine Warrior motif. Randal Argall has analyzed the motif of the Divine Warrior in Sirach 35:22–26 and in the prayer for deliverance and has shown how many of the motif’s traditional elements are present in these passages. Numerous of these elements have already been implicit in my treatment of these texts above. Most obviously, Ben Sira describes God “as a warrior” (Sirach 35.22) who will fight against the nations (Sirach 35:22–24; 36:1–12). After his successful defeat of the nations, YHWH will rescue his people (Sirach 35:25–6; 36:1, 13–19). To be sure, certain traditional elements of the Divine Warrior motif are absent. For example, nowhere does Ben Sira suggest that the Divine Warrior “sets out” or “goes down” to battle ..."
Greg Schmidt Goering, Wisdom’s Root Revealed: Ben Sira and the Election of Israel (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 228.

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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Exodus 15:3 and Sirach 35:22

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