Scripture Daily

Context No. 2096 of 4322 · Sirach

Context · Reflection

Sirach 5:1-15: in context

1Don’t set your heart upon your goods. Don’t say, “They are sufficient for me.” 2Don’t follow your own mind and your strength to walk in the desires of your heart. 3Don’t say, “Who will have dominion over me?” for the Lord will surely take vengeance on you. 4Don’t say, “I sinned, and what happened to me?” for the Lord is patient. 5Don’t be so confident of atonement that you add sin upon sins. 6Don’t say, “His compassion is great. He will be pacified for the multitude of my sins,” for mercy and wrath are with him, and his indignation will rest on sinners. 7Don’t wait to turn to the Lord. Don’t put off from day to day; for suddenly the wrath of the Lord will come on you, and you will perish in the time of vengeance. 8Don’t set your heart upon unrighteous gains, for you will profit nothing in the day of calamity. 9Don’t winnow with every wind. Don’t walk in every path. This is what the sinner who has a double tongue does. 10Be steadfast in your understanding. Let your speech be consistent. 11Be swift to hear and answer with patience. 12If you have understanding, answer your neighbor; but if not, put your hand over your mouth. 13Glory and dishonor is in talk. A man’s tongue may be his downfall. 14Don’t be called a whisperer. Don’t lie in wait with your tongue; for shame is on the thief, and an evil condemnation is on him who has a double tongue. 15Don’t be ignorant in a great or small matter.

Sirach turns to the use of the tongue and the consistency of our speech. Do not winnow with every wind, he warns, nor walk in every path; this is what the double-tongued sinner does. Be steadfast in your understanding, and let your speech be consistent. Be swift to hear, and answer with patience. Do not be called a whisperer, nor lie in wait with your tongue. He calls for integrity and consistency in our words: not shifting our speech to suit each company, but being the same, steadfast and truthful, to all.

The warning against being double-tongued exposes a common failing. To be double-tongued is to say one thing to one person and another to another, to shift our words to suit our company, to flatter one and slander him to the next, to winnow with every wind rather than being steadfast and consistent in what we say. Sirach calls this the way of the sinner, and against it he sets the ideal: be steadfast, let your speech be consistent, be the same to all. Integrity in speech means saying the same thing whether the person is present or absent, not shifting our words to gain advantage or approval, but being truthful and consistent. This searches the integrity of our own words. Do we shift our speech to suit our company, saying what flatters each person, agreeing with one and then the next though they disagree, praising someone to their face and criticizing them behind their back? Such double-tongued speech is inconsistent, untrustworthy, and, Sirach says, the way of the sinner. The call is to steadfast, consistent speech: to be the same in what we say, whoever is listening, truthful and reliable rather than shifting with every wind. And Sirach adds a further wisdom: be swift to hear, and answer with patience. Much trouble in speech comes from speaking too quickly, before we have listened, answering in haste rather than patience. Let every one be swift to hear, James says, slow to speak. To listen well before we answer, and to answer with patience rather than haste, guards our speech from much wrong. This calls us to integrity and care in our words. Are we consistent, saying the same thing to all, or double-tongued, shifting our speech to suit our company? Are we swift to hear and patient to answer, or quick to speak before we have listened? Out of the same mouth, James laments, come blessing and cursing; these things ought not to be so. Sirach calls us to steadfast, consistent, truthful speech, the same to all, and to the patience of listening before we answer, that our words might be marked by the integrity and care that guard both us and others from the harm the double tongue does.

Is my speech consistent and truthful, the same to all, or am I double-tongued, shifting my words to suit my company, praising someone to their face and criticizing them behind their back, and am I swift to hear and patient to answer, and can Sirach's call to steadfast, consistent speech and to listening before I answer move me toward the integrity and care in my words that guard both me and others from the harm the double tongue does?

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