Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word
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⚙ Annotations & References ▾
Historic voices 1 ▾
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1× 30
Manuscript witnesses 2 ▾
Codex Sinaiticus Aleph c. AD 330-360 Codex Vaticanus B c. AD 300-325
What is Sirach 18 about?

The greatness and mercy of God frame the chapter, which declares that He who lives forever created all things, and that man, whose days are few, is as nothing before Him. Because the LORD is patient and pours out mercy, He corrects and teaches His people as a shepherd his flock. Ben Sira then turns to self-mastery, warning the reader not to follow his appetites or lusts, to weigh his vows, and to remember death and judgment in the day of plenty. Humility before God and restraint of desire are commended together as wisdom.

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 18
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 18

Sirach Chapter 18
18
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What is Sirach 18 about?

The greatness and mercy of God frame the chapter, which declares that He who lives forever created all things, and that man, whose days are few, is as nothing before Him. Because the LORD is patient and pours out mercy, He corrects and teaches His people as a shepherd his flock. Ben Sira then turns to self-mastery, warning the reader not to follow his appetites or lusts, to weigh his vows, and to remember death and judgment in the day of plenty. Humility before God and restraint of desire are commended together as wisdom.