Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word
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⚙ Annotations & References ▾
Historic voices 1 ▾
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2× 27-28
Manuscript witnesses 2 ▾
Codex Sinaiticus Aleph c. AD 330-360 Codex Vaticanus B c. AD 300-325
What is Sirach 43 about?

The wonders of the sky and the seasons fill this hymn, as Ben Sira praises the burning sun, the moon that marks the feasts and the months, the shining stars, and the rainbow that encircles the heavens with glory. He calls the reader to marvel at snow and frost, hail and thunder, the driving winds, and the great deep with its creatures, each declaring the power of the One who made it. Yet he confesses that words fail: though we say much, we can never say enough, for God is greater than all His works, and to exalt Him we must summon all our strength and still fall short. A doxology within the book, the chapter turns the fear of the Lord into wonder before the Creator whose greatness is beyond telling.

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 43
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 43

Sirach Chapter 43
43
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What is Sirach 43 about?

The wonders of the sky and the seasons fill this hymn, as Ben Sira praises the burning sun, the moon that marks the feasts and the months, the shining stars, and the rainbow that encircles the heavens with glory. He calls the reader to marvel at snow and frost, hail and thunder, the driving winds, and the great deep with its creatures, each declaring the power of the One who made it. Yet he confesses that words fail: though we say much, we can never say enough, for God is greater than all His works, and to exalt Him we must summon all our strength and still fall short. A doxology within the book, the chapter turns the fear of the Lord into wonder before the Creator whose greatness is beyond telling.