Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word
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⚙ Annotations & References ▾
Historic voices 1 ▾
City of God 1× 13
Manuscript witnesses 2 ▾
Codex Sinaiticus Aleph c. AD 330-360 Codex Vaticanus B c. AD 300-325
What is Sirach 10 about?

Government and pride form the subject of the chapter, which teaches that a wise ruler disciplines his people and that a nation takes its character from its head. Ben Sira names pride as hateful to God and man and the beginning of sin, and observes that sovereignty passes from nation to nation because of injustice. Since every man is dust, he warns against arrogance and honors instead the God-fearing, whether rich or poor. Honor is measured not by wealth or station but by reverence for the LORD.

Historical backdrop

Ben Sira taught in Jerusalem around 180 BC, in the last calm before the storm. Judea had passed from Ptolemaic to Seleucid hands, Greek ways pressed in from every side, and the second temple still stood in the glory the high priest Simon had restored, the Simon whose splendor the book remembers. Within a generation Antiochus would defile that temple, and the grandson who carried the work to Egypt and turned it into Greek wrote in the aftermath, for the Jews of Alexandria.

The Church Fathers on Sirach 10
Deuterocanon (Catholic & Orthodox) · Accepted as canonical Scripture by the Catholic and Orthodox traditions and included in the original 1611 KJV (between the Old and New Testaments). Not in the Protestant 66-book canon. Read with the same care you bring to other Scripture, conscious that Protestants and Catholics weigh its authority differently.

Sirach 10

Sirach Chapter 10
10
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What is Sirach 10 about?

Government and pride form the subject of the chapter, which teaches that a wise ruler disciplines his people and that a nation takes its character from its head. Ben Sira names pride as hateful to God and man and the beginning of sin, and observes that sovereignty passes from nation to nation because of injustice. Since every man is dust, he warns against arrogance and honors instead the God-fearing, whether rich or poor. Honor is measured not by wealth or station but by reverence for the LORD.