Context No. 3019 of 4322 · Sirach

Sirach 38:17-34: in context

17Make bitter weeping and make passionate wailing. Let your mourning be according to his merit, for one day or two, lest you be spoken evil of; and so be comforted for your sorrow. 18For from sorrow comes death. Sorrow of heart saps one’s strength. 19In calamity, sorrow also remains. A poor man’s life is grievous to the heart. 20Don’t give your heart to sorrow. Put it away, remembering the end. 21Don’t forget it, for there is no returning again. You do him no good, and you would harm yourself. 22Remember his end, for so also will yours be: yesterday for him, and today for you. 23When the dead is at rest, let his remembrance rest. Be comforted for him when his spirit departs from him. 24The wisdom of the scribe comes by the opportunity of leisure. He who has little business can become wise. 25How could he become wise who holds the plow, who glories in the shaft of the goad, who drives oxen and is occupied in their labors, and who mostly talks about bulls? 26He will set his heart upon turning his furrows. His lack of sleep is to give his heifers their fodder. 27So is every craftsman and master artisan who passes his time by night as by day, those who cut engravings of signets. His diligence is to make great variety. He sets his heart to preserve likeness in his portraiture, and is careful to finish his work. 28So too is the smith sitting by the anvil and considering the unwrought iron. The smoke of the fire will waste his flesh. He toils in the heat of the furnace. The noise of the hammer deafens his ear. His eyes are upon the pattern of the object. He will set his heart upon perfecting his works. He will be careful to adorn them perfectly. 29So is the potter sitting at his work and turning the wheel around with his feet, who is always anxiously set at his work. He produces his handiwork in quantity. 30He will fashion the clay with his arm and will bend its strength in front of his feet. He will apply his heart to finish the glazing. He will be careful to clean the kiln. 31All these put their trust in their hands. Each becomes skillful in his own work. 32Without these no city would be inhabited. Men wouldn’t reside as foreigners or walk up and down there. 33They won’t be sought for in the council of the people. They won’t mount on high in the assembly. They won’t sit on the seat of the judge. They won’t understand the covenant of judgment. Neither will they declare instruction and judgment. They won’t be found where parables are. 34But they will maintain the fabric of the age. Their prayer is in the handiwork of their craft.

Ben Sira first counsels measured mourning: weep bitterly for the dead a day or two, then be comforted, for grief let loose without limit harms the living and cannot help the one who is gone. Then he turns, unexpectedly, to the trades, describing the farmer at his furrows, the engraver, the smith sweating by the anvil, the potter turning his wheel, each absorbed in his craft.

Two things emerge. First, a wise word on grief: mourn truly, but do not let sorrow consume you endlessly, for the sake of the living who need you. And second, a striking honoring of ordinary labor. The scholar and the judge get the honor and the seat in the assembly, but Ben Sira insists that the farmer, the smith, and the potter, who will never sit in the council, nevertheless maintain the fabric of the world, and their diligent craft is itself a kind of prayer. God is served not only in temples and councils but at the plow, the anvil, and the wheel.

Do I honor ordinary, skilled labor, mine and others', as service that upholds the world and can itself be a form of prayer?

Sources

Sirach 38:34: "But they will maintain the fabric of the age. Their prayer is in the handiwork of their craft."
Colossians 3:23: "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men."
1 Corinthians 10:31: "Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."