Scripture Daily

Context No. 1580 of 4322 · Sirach

Context · Reflection

Sirach 19:1-16: in context

1A worker who is a drunkard will not become rich. He who despises small things will fall little by little. 2Wine and women will make men of understanding go astray. He who joins with prostitutes is reckless. 3Decay and worms will have him as their heritage. A reckless soul will be taken away. 4He who is hasty to trust is shallow-hearted. He who sins offends against his own soul. 5He who rejoices in wickedness will be condemned. 6He who hates gossip has less wickedness. 7Never repeat what is told you, and you won’t lose anything. 8Whether it is of friend or foe, don’t tell it. Unless it is a sin to you, don’t reveal it. 9For if he has heard you and observed you, when the time comes, he will hate you. 10Have you heard something? Let it die with you. Be brave: it will not make you burst! 11A fool will travail in pain with a word, as a woman in labor with a child. 12As an arrow that sticks in the flesh of the thigh, so is gossip in a fool. 13Question a friend; it may be he didn’t do it. If he did something, it may be that he may do it no more. 14Question your neighbor; it may be he didn’t say it. If he has said it, it may be that he may not say it again. 15Question a friend; for many times there is slander. Don’t trust every word. 16There is one who slips, and not from the heart. Who is he who hasn’t sinned with his tongue?

Ben Sira gives frank counsel about the tongue and the ear. Never repeat what is told you, he says, and you will lose nothing; whether of friend or foe, do not tell it. Have you heard something? Let it die with you; be brave, it will not make you burst. A fool cannot hold a word in; it is like an arrow stuck in the flesh, and he labors to get it out. And he adds a caution about believing: question a matter before you accept it, for there is much slander; do not trust every word. And he ends with humility: who is there that has not sinned with his tongue?

The counsel worth taking is the discipline of the held tongue: have you heard something? Let it die with you. Ben Sira sets the trustworthy person, who can keep a thing to himself and let it die within him, against the fool who cannot hold a word in, for whom an unspoken word is like an arrow lodged in the flesh, painful until it is blurted out. Some people simply cannot keep what they hear; a piece of news, a confidence, a bit of gossip burns in them until they have passed it on. Ben Sira commends the opposite, the discipline of letting a matter die with us, keeping to ourselves what we have heard, especially what would harm another if repeated. Never repeat what is told you, he says, and you will lose nothing; the held tongue costs us nothing and guards both the person spoken of and our own trustworthiness. There is a rare and valuable integrity in being someone whose confidences hold, who does not pass on what they hear, in whom a private matter dies rather than travels. And he adds a companion wisdom about receiving: do not trust every word; question a report before believing it, for there is much slander. Much of what we hear is not even true; and the wise neither spread what they hear nor believe it uncritically. To hold our tongues about what we hear, and to hesitate before believing what is told us, is a double discipline that guards against the harm the tongue and the ear can do. Who has not sinned with his tongue? The honest answer humbles us all and commends the discipline Ben Sira urges.

Am I someone in whom a confidence dies, who does not repeat what I hear, or do I, like the fool who cannot hold a word in, pass on what burns in me to tell, and do I question a report before believing it, or spread and believe what I hear without weighing whether it is even true?

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