Context No. 2716 of 4322 · Sirach

Sirach 7:1-16: in context

1Do no evil, so no evil will overtake you. 2Depart from wrong, and it will turn away from you. 3My son, don’t sow upon the furrows of unrighteousness, and you won’t reap them sevenfold. 4Don’t seek preeminence from the Lord, nor the seat of honor from the king. 5Don’t justify yourself in the presence of the Lord, and don’t display your wisdom before the king. 6Don’t seek to be a judge, lest you not be able to take away iniquities, lest perhaps you fear the person of a mighty man, and lay a stumbling block in the way of your uprightness. 7Don’t sin against the multitude of the city. Don’t disgrace yourself in the crowd. 8Don’t commit a sin twice, for even in one you will not be unpunished. 9Don’t say, “He will look upon the multitude of my gifts. When I make an offering to the Most High God, he will accept it.” 10Don’t be faint-hearted in your prayer. Don’t neglect to give alms. 11Don’t laugh a man to scorn when he is in the bitterness of his soul, for there is one who humbles and exalts. 12Don’t devise a lie against your brother, or do the same to a friend. 13Refuse to utter a lie, for that habit results in no good. 14Don’t babble in the assembly of elders. Don’t repeat your words in your prayer. 15Don’t hate hard labor or farm work, which the Most High has created. 16Don’t number yourself among the multitude of sinners. Remember that wrath will not wait.

Ben Sira strings together a run of short commands on how to live cleanly and low to the ground. Do no evil and evil will not overtake you. Do not reach for a seat of honor from the king. Do not seek to be a judge if you cannot carry the weight of it. Do not assume God will wave your sin through because your gifts to him are many. Do not be faint in prayer, or neglect alms, or mock a man in the bitterness of his soul.

A single thread ties the list together: a warning against self-importance. Nearly every line pulls the reader down off a perch, out of the judge's chair, away from the habit of justifying himself before God and men. Wisdom here is a settled lowliness that refuses to trade on status or presume on grace, because the same God humbles and exalts.

Where am I reaching for a seat of honor, or presuming on God's patience, when wisdom would have me sit lower?

Sources

Sirach 7:5: "Don't justify yourself in the presence of the Lord, and don't display your wisdom before the king."
Luke 14:10: "When you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place... Then you will be honored in the presence of all."
Micah 6:8: "What does the LORD require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?"