"... Like Proverbs, the poetry of Sirach is generally marked by parallelism, either in single or multiple couplets. But the sayings of Ben Sira consist of both long and short teachings made up from various genres, such as “proverbs,” “hymns of praise,” “songs of thanksgiving,” “laments,” “prophetic speeches” and “wisdom personified speeches”, with the genres of mashal (Sirach 1-43) and rewritten Bible (Sirach 44-49) being the most prominent ones. The basic meaning of mashal is “likeness/comparison,” and it is generally used to describe a popular aphoristic saying. Like Proverbs, Sirach contains “better” sayings, with the standard formula (e.g., Sirach 20:31; 40:28). Numerical sayings usually take the form “x/x plus one” and have their emphasis on the second, larger number (e.g., Sirach 23:16-18; 25:1-2, 7-11; 26:5-6, 28; 50:25-26). Ben Sira’s numerical sayings stretch from 2/3 (Sirach 23:16-18) to 9/10 (Sirach 25:711). Other types of mashal include, among others, “happy” sayings (e.g., Sirach 14:1-2, 20; 25:8-9; 26:1) and “woe” sayings (Sirach 2:12-14; 41:8) ..."