The great roll of the fathers opens with the summons, "Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers in their generations," beginning the extended honor-list that runs to the end of the book. Ben Sira distinguishes those remembered for their deeds, rulers, counselors, prophets, and sages, from the many who have left no memory, and declares that the godly and their descendants endure while their names are not blotted out. He then begins the account of the ancients: Enoch who pleased God and was taken up, Noah found righteous and preserved through the flood, and Abraham the father of nations who kept the law and received the covenant, with the promise passing to Isaac and Jacob. Gathering Israel's history into praise, the chapter shows the fear of the Lord bearing fruit across the generations and points toward the heroes of faith the following chapters extol.