Context No. 3031 of 4322 · Sirach

Sirach 20:1-16: in context

1There is a reproof that is not timely; and there is a person who is wise enough to keep silent. 2How good is it to reprove, rather than to be angry. He who confesses will be kept back from harm. 4As is the lust of a eunuch to deflower a virgin, so is he who executes judgments with violence. 5There is one who keeps silent and is found wise; and there is one who is hated for his much talk. 6There is one who keeps silent, for he has no answer to make; And there is one who keeps silent, knowing when to speak. 7A wise man will be silent until his time has come, but the braggart and fool will miss his time. 8He who uses many words will be abhorred. He who takes authority for himself will be hated in it. 9There is a prosperity that a man finds in misfortunes; and there is a gain that turns to loss. 10There is a gift that will not profit you; and there is a gift that pays back double. 11There are losses because of glory; and there is one who has lifted up his head from a low estate. 12There is one who buys much for a little, and pays for it again sevenfold. 13He who is wise in words will make himself beloved; but the pleasantries of fools will be wasted. 14The gift of a fool will not profit you, for he looks for repayment many times instead of one. 15He will give little and insult much. He will open his mouth like a crier. Today he will lend, and tomorrow he will ask for it back. Such a one is a hateful man. 16The fool will say, “I have no friend, and I have no thanks for my good deeds. Those who eat my bread have an evil tongue.”

Ben Sira weighs the wisdom of knowing when to speak and when to keep silent. There is a rebuke that is untimely, he says, and a person wise enough to hold his tongue. One keeps silent and is found wise; another is hated for his endless talk. A wise man stays silent until his moment comes, but the boaster and fool miss their time entirely.

The thread through it all is the wisdom of timing and restraint in speech. Silence, rightly used, is itself wisdom, knowing when not to speak, when a rebuke would do more harm than good, when to wait for the right moment rather than saying everything at once. The fool talks too much, speaks at the wrong time, and even his gifts come with strings and reproaches attached. Wisdom is not only having the right words but the discernment to know when, and whether, to say them at all.

Do I have the wisdom to hold my tongue when speaking would do harm, and to wait for the right moment, rather than rushing to say everything I could say?

Sources

Sirach 20:7: "A wise man will be silent until his time has come, but the braggart and fool will miss his time."
Proverbs 15:23: "A word spoken at the right time, how good it is!"
Ecclesiastes 3:7: "A time to keep silence, and a time to speak."