Relationships and the Choice of Friends

Chapter 9

1 Don’t be jealous over the wife of your bosom, and don’t teach her an evil lesson against yourself. 2 Don’t give your soul to a woman and let her trample down your strength. 3 Don’t go to meet a woman who plays the prostitute, lest perhaps you fall into her snares. 4 Don’t associate with a woman who is a singer, lest perhaps you be caught by her tricks. 5 Don’t gaze at a virgin, lest perhaps you stumble and incur penalties for her.⁠ 6 Don’t give your soul to prostitutes, that you not lose your inheritance. 7 Don’t look around in the streets of the city. Don’t wander in its deserted places.⁠ 8 Turn your eye away from a beautiful woman, and don’t gaze at another’s beauty. Many have been led astray by the beauty of a woman; and with this, passion is kindled like a fire.⁠ 9 Don’t dine at all with a woman who has a husband, or revel with her at wine, lest perhaps your soul turn away to her, and with your spirit you slide into destruction.⁠ 10 Don’t forsake an old friend; for a new one is not comparable to him. A new friend is like new wine: if it becomes old, you will drink it with gladness.⁠ 11 Don’t envy the success of a sinner; for you don’t know what his end will be. 12 Don’t delight in the delights of the ungodly. Remember they will not go unpunished to the grave. 13 Keep yourself far from the man who has power to kill, and you will not be troubled by the fear of death. If you come to him, commit no fault, lest he take away your life. Know surely that you go about in the midst of snares, and walk upon the battlements of a city. 14 As well as you can, aim to know your neighbors, and take counsel with the wise. 15 Let your conversation be with men of understanding. Let all your discourse be in the law of the Most High. 16 Let righteous people be companions at your table. Let your glorying be in the fear of the Lord.⁠

Rulers and the Sin of Pride

17 A work is commended because of the skill of the artisan; so he who rules the people will be considered wise for his speech. 18 A loudmouthed man is dangerous in his city. He who is reckless in his speech will be hated.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Sirach 9:18 and Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.7

Deuterocanon · Early Christian

Summary

The Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria uses Sirach as an authoritative source to teach about thoughtfulness in speech, demonstrating how the Jewish wisdom text influenced early Christian teaching and tradition.

Passages

Sirach 9:18

Deuterocanon · Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus

16 Let righteous people be companions at your table. Let your glorying be in the fear of the Lord. 17 A work is commended because of the skill of the artisan; so he who rules the people will be considered wise for his speech. 18 A loudmouthed man is dangerous in his city. He who is reckless in his speech will be hated.

195–180 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Sirach

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.7

Early Christian · Paedagogus

For dreadful in his destruction is a loquacious man. And it is with triflers as with old shoes: all the rest is worn away by evil; the tongue only is left for destruction. So Wisdom gives these most useful exhortations: Do not talk trifles in the multitude of the elders. Further, eradicating frivolousness, beginning with God, it lays down the law for our regulation somewhat thus: Do not repeat your words in your prayer. Chirruping and whistling, and sounds made through the fingers, by which domestics are called, being irrational signs, are to be given up by rational men. Frequent spitting, too, and violent clearing of the throat, and wiping one's nose at an entertainment, are to be shunned. For respect is assuredly to be had to the guests, lest they turn in disgust from such filthiness, which argues lack of restraint. For we are not to copy oxen and asses, whose manger and dunghill are together. For many wipe their noses and spit even while supping.

198 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2

References

"... The eighty-fifth of the Apostolical Canons gives a list of the books of the Hebrew Canon, and adds the first three books of the Maccabees and the Wisdom of Sirach; these last four are not, however, included in the Canon, though the Wisdom of Sirach is specially recommended for the instruction of the young. Again, in the Apostolical Constitutions, 6:14, 15, quotations from Sirach are given with the same formula as those from the books of the Hebrew Canon, but in the list given in 2:57 of the same work, there is no mention of any of the books of the Apocrypha ... The evidence of Clement of Alexandria is conflicting; in his Paedagogus he quotes very often from Sirach, and speaks of it as 'scripture', from which it would evidently appear that he regarded it as canonical Scripture; but, according to Eusebius, Clement reckoned Sirach among the 'Antilegomena', for in speaking of Clement's works he mentions the Stromateis, or 'Medleys', and says: 'He quotes in them passages from the disputed Scriptures, the so-called Wisdom of Solomon, for example, and of Jesus the son of Sirach, and the Epistle to the Hebrews, and those of Barnabas, Clement, and Jude ..."

R. H. Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament (Oxford University Press, 1913), 299.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Relationships and the Choice of Friends

Rulers and the Sin of Pride

Sirach52 chapters

Compare Sirach 9:18 and Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.7

Summary

Passages

Sirach 9:18

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.7

References

Your feedback

Leave a comment

Glossary

Search the Library