Sirach
Chapter 14
Happy is the one who has not sinned in speech or who feels no remorse for their faults.
Happy is he whose conscience does not condemn him and who has not strayed from his ideals.
Stingy and Generous
Wealth is not suitable for a small-minded person; why would you give riches to the greedy?
He who hoards, depriving himself, is hoarding for others: they will enjoy his goods.
He who is stingy with himself, with whom will he be generous? He does not even enjoy his own wealth.
There is nothing worse than someone who is stingy to himself; this is how his evil punishes him.
If he does good, he does it unknowingly, but eventually, his evil will be exposed.
Evil is the greedy-eyed person who ignores others and looks down on people.
The ambitious man is not satisfied with what he has; wicked injustice dulls the heart.
The envious eye covets others’ food; misery and famine will follow him at his table.
My son, make good use of what you have and give worthy offerings to the Lord.
Remember that death will not wait, and your time has not yet been shown to you.
Be kind to your friend before you die, and be generous to him in any way you can.
Enjoy happiness and accept lawful pleasure when it comes your way.
Will you not have to leave the fruit of your labors to another? Will it not be shared out by lot?
Give, take, and treat yourself well, for in the netherworld there are no pleasures to seek.
All living things grow old like clothing. This is the eternal law: “You will die.”
Like green leaves on a bushy tree, some sprout and others fall off; so are the generations of flesh and blood: one dies, and another is born.
All finite things pass away, along with their creator.
Wisdom
Blessed is the one who is focused on wisdom and can respond to those who question him;
who makes his own the paths of wisdom and meditates on her secrets;
who pursues her like a hunter, lying in wait along her paths,
peeps in at her windows and listen at her doors;
he sets up camp near her house, fixing his stakes in her walls.
He puts his tent in the hands of wisdom; he lives in a joyful shelter.
He puts his sons under her protection and finds refuge beneath her branches.
He is shaded by her from the heat and camps in her glory.
Commentaries
Conscience.
One concern of the wise is balancing their inner world and outward appearance; we might call this integrity. A person with integrity shows their deepest feelings through their actions, and this is not just a religious virtue but also an effort to maintain good mental health. Whether we like it or not, a person’s “psyche” tends to weaken when they live in this dichotomy, appearing externally to be something completely different from what they are internally; so, in this too, Ben Sirach is wise—it’s worth fighting for the authenticity and integrity of one’s personality.
Stingy and Generous.
For Ben Sirach, there are two main attitudes toward money and material goods: greed or stinginess, and generosity or detachment. Simply observing, the miser does not even serve himself and thus cannot serve others; his life revolves around obsessively accumulating and possessing, ending sadly as everything is left in the hands of those who did nothing to earn it. Ben Sirach’s advice is to practice generosity: first, be generous to God (11), help others (13.16a), and naturally, enjoy and take pleasure in your possessions (11.14.16b). The core idea is that what we acquire in this life should be enjoyed during this life because, after death, there’s no need to seek pleasures in the Abyss.
Wisdom.
This passage has two sections. The first (14:20-27) describes a careful man who seeks wisdom. The image shows a hunter who patiently spies, follows tracks, camps, and sets nets until he reaches his goal. This man is called happy, blessed (14:20); the second (15:1-10) explains the benefits of seeking and gaining wisdom. The first benefit is that one gains knowledge and the ability to follow the Law of the Lord; this is the foundation for understanding the fruits and benefits of wisdom. Using images of nourishment and food, wisdom, personified as a generous woman, offers bread and drink to those who seek her. This behavior of wisdom is only for those who truly search for her.