Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word
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⚙ Annotations & References ▾
Manuscript witnesses 2 ▾
Codex Sinaiticus Aleph c. AD 330-360 Codex Vaticanus B c. AD 300-325
What is Sirach 47 about?

From the judges the praise advances to the kings of Israel. Nathan the prophet is named briefly before David is honored at length, his youthful victory over Goliath, his triumphs in battle, his ordering of the songs and feasts of worship, and the LORD's forgiveness of his sins and exalting of his throne. Solomon follows, praised for the peace of his reign, the temple he built, and the wisdom that drew nations to him, yet frankly rebuked for the women who stained his glory, the wrath he brought upon himself, and the folly that divided the kingdom after him. Ben Sira does not hide the failings of the great, and the mingled account of glory and sin commends wisdom while warning against the sensuality that undoes it.

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 47
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 47

Sirach Chapter 47
47
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What is Sirach 47 about?

From the judges the praise advances to the kings of Israel. Nathan the prophet is named briefly before David is honored at length, his youthful victory over Goliath, his triumphs in battle, his ordering of the songs and feasts of worship, and the LORD's forgiveness of his sins and exalting of his throne. Solomon follows, praised for the peace of his reign, the temple he built, and the wisdom that drew nations to him, yet frankly rebuked for the women who stained his glory, the wrath he brought upon himself, and the folly that divided the kingdom after him. Ben Sira does not hide the failings of the great, and the mingled account of glory and sin commends wisdom while warning against the sensuality that undoes it.