Chapter 23
1 O Lord, Father and Master of my life,
do not abandon me to their control,
and do not permit me to fall because of them.
2 Who will administer whips to my thoughts
and the discipline of wisdom to my mind,
lest my failings may be spared
or any sins of mine be overlooked,
3 lest my failings be multiplied
and my sins abound,
lest I succumb to my adversaries
and my enemy gloat over me?
[For hope of receiving mercy from them is remote.][a]
4 O Lord, Father and God of my life,
do not allow haughtiness to mark my gaze,
5 and remove evil desire from my heart.
6 Let neither gluttony nor lust gain power over me,
and do not give me over to shameless passions.
Do Not Swear Oaths Lightly[b]
7 Listen, my children, to the instruction of my mouth;
anyone who does so will never be shamed.
8 The sinner is ensnared by his own lips;
both the abusive and the arrogant man are tripped up by them.
9 Do not let your mouth fall into the habit of swearing oaths,
or become accustomed to uttering the name of the Holy One.
10 For just as a servant who is constantly observed
is never without bruises,
so also the person who swears continuously by the Name
will never be cleansed from sin.
11 The one who swears many oaths is filled with iniquity,
and the scourge will never be far from his home.
If he swears in error, he still incurs guilt,
and if he disregards his oath, he sins twice.
If he swears a false oath, he will not be treated as innocent,
and his house will be filled with calamities.[c]
The Wise Watch Their Words[d]
12 There are words that are fraught with death;
may they never be heard among Jacob’s descendants.
For such conduct will be avoided by the devout;
they will not wallow in sin.
13 Do not use your mouth for coarse and foul language,
since that involves sinful speech.
14 Remember your father and mother
when you are sitting among the mighty,
or you may forget yourself in their presence
and by such habits make a fool of yourself.
Then you will wish you had never been born
and curse the day of your birth.
15 A man who gets into the habit of using shameful language
will never be reformed as long as he lives.
The Blindness of the Immodest[e]
16 Two types of people multiply sins,
and a third[f] incurs wrath.
For burning passion that blazes like a fire
cannot be quenched until it burns itself out:
One who becomes sexually involved with close relatives
will never cease until the fire consumes him.
17 A fornicator finds every cake is sweet[g]
and he will not desist until he dies.
18 One who dishonors his marriage bed
says to himself: “Who can see me?
Darkness surrounds me, walls conceal me,
and no one can see me; why should I worry?
The Most High will not remember my sins.”
19 He fears only human eyes
and does not realize that the eyes of the Lord
are ten thousand times brighter than the sun,
observing every aspect of human behavior
and gazing into the most secret corners.
20 All things were known to him before they were created,[h]
and they still are, now that they are finished.
21 This man will be punished in the streets of the city;
when he least expects it, he will be seized.[i]
The Trial of an Adulteress[j]
22 The same is true of a woman who is unfaithful to her husband
and presents him with an heir by another man.
23 For first of all she has disobeyed the law of the Most High;
second, she has been false to her husband;
third, by her fornication she has committed adultery
and conceived children by another man.
24 [k]She will be presented before the assembly for judgment,
and her punishment will extend to her children.
25 Her children will not strike root,
nor will her branches bear fruit.
26 She will leave behind an accursed memory,
and her disgrace will never be effaced.
27 Thus, those who survive her will recognize
that nothing is better than fear of the Lord
and that nothing is sweeter than to adhere to his commandments.
[28 To follow God is a great honor,
and to be acceptable to him is to lengthen one’s days.][l]
Footnotes
- Wisdom of Ben Sira 23:3 Added by some early MSS.
- Wisdom of Ben Sira 23:7 To call God to witness, without first reflecting on it, is to give him no respect.
- Wisdom of Ben Sira 23:11 The author seems to set forth three cases of swearing oaths ranging from light to heavy sinfulness: (1) a sincere oath that is not fulfilled; (2) an oath that is undertaken lightly; and (3) an oath that is undertaken in bad faith.
- Wisdom of Ben Sira 23:12 Using abusive, coarse, and foul speech is habit-forming. The wise watch their every word to avoid such a habit.
- Wisdom of Ben Sira 23:16 The immodest reassure themselves that they sin in secret, but God sees everything: no thought, word, or deed escapes his notice.
- Wisdom of Ben Sira 23:16 Two types of people . . . and a third: this numerical proverb, a common literary form (see Sir 25:1-2, 7-11; 26:5f, 28; Prov 6:16-19), singles out three kinds of lechers: the dissolute (v. 16), the incestuous (v. 17), and the adulterous (vv. 18-21).
- Wisdom of Ben Sira 23:17 Every cake is sweet: to emphasize his point, the author makes use of a euphemism for the adulterer’s unending quest for new liaisons.
- Wisdom of Ben Sira 23:20 Known to him before they were created: God’s antecedent knowledge of creation is divine wisdom itself (Prov 8:22f). And they still are, now: after creating the world, God continues to watch over it. Indeed, the Lord knows all things, both past and future (see Sir 42:18; Ps 139:1-16).
- Wisdom of Ben Sira 23:21 Capital punishment for the adulterer is not mentioned. Hence, it appears that the death penalty decreed in Lev 20:10; Deut 22:22-24 had been replaced in the author’s time, possibly by scourging (see Prov 5:11-14; 6:32f).
- Wisdom of Ben Sira 23:22 A society that regards women as inferior to men will not pardon the misconduct of an unfaithful spouse, and her children will bear the punishment. Our moralist dramatizes the situation to discourage, beforehand, a type of dangerous envy.
- Wisdom of Ben Sira 23:24 It was the assembly that passed judgment on the illegitimacy of children born of adultery or incest and excluded them from the “assembly of the Lord” (Deut 23:3). See also Wis 3:16-19; 4:3-6.
- Wisdom of Ben Sira 23:28 Added by some early MSS.