Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word
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⚙ Annotations & References ▾
Historic voices 2 ▾
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1× 14 City of God 1× 28
Manuscript witnesses 2 ▾
Codex Sinaiticus Aleph c. AD 330-360 Codex Vaticanus B c. AD 300-325
What is Sirach 11 about?

Against judgment by appearances, the chapter teaches that wisdom lifts the head of the poor and that a man should be praised or blamed by his conduct, not his looks or estate. Ben Sira warns against boasting of tomorrow, since prosperity and adversity alike come from the LORD, and cautions against restless overwork and against taking in a smooth-talking stranger. Patience and discernment are commended over anxious striving. The whole rests on trust that God, not human effort alone, apportions a man's lot.

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 11
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 11

Sirach Chapter 11
11
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What is Sirach 11 about?

Against judgment by appearances, the chapter teaches that wisdom lifts the head of the poor and that a man should be praised or blamed by his conduct, not his looks or estate. Ben Sira warns against boasting of tomorrow, since prosperity and adversity alike come from the LORD, and cautions against restless overwork and against taking in a smooth-talking stranger. Patience and discernment are commended over anxious striving. The whole rests on trust that God, not human effort alone, apportions a man's lot.