Context No. 3051 of 4322 · Sirach

Sirach 10:1-16: in context

1A wise judge will instruct his people. The government of a man of understanding will be well ordered. 2As is the judge of his people, so are his officials. As the city’s ruler is, so are all those who dwell in it. 3An undisciplined king will destroy his people. A city will be established through the understanding of the powerful. 4The government of the earth is in the Lord’s hand. In due time, he will raise up over it the right person at the right time. 5A man’s prosperity is in the Lord’s hand. He will lay his honor upon the person of the scribe. 6Don’t be angry with your neighbor for every wrong. Do nothing by works of violence. 7Pride is hateful before the Lord and men. Arrogance is abhorrent in the judgment of both. 8Sovereignty is transferred from nation to nation because of injustice, violence, and greed for money. 9Why are dirt and ashes proud? Because in life, my body decays. 10A long disease mocks the physician. The king of today will die tomorrow. 11For when a man is dead, he will inherit maggots, vermin, and worms. 12It is the beginning of pride when a man departs from the Lord. His heart has departed from him who made him. 13For the beginning of pride is sin. He who keeps it will pour out abomination. For this cause the Lord brought upon them strange calamities and utterly overthrew them. 14The Lord cast down the thrones of rulers and set the lowly in their place. 15The Lord plucked up the roots of nations and planted the lowly in their place. 16The Lord overthrew the lands of nations and destroyed them to the foundations of the earth.

Ben Sira reflects on rulers and pride. A wise ruler orders his people well, and the government of the earth is in the Lord's hand; in due time he raises up the right person. But then he turns to what destroys a ruler: pride is hateful to God and to men; sovereignty passes from nation to nation because of injustice and greed; the Lord casts down the thrones of rulers and sets the lowly in their place.

The passage traces a ruler's ruin to its root: the beginning of pride is when a person departs from the LORD. And it names a pattern woven through history, that kingdoms and thrones fall because of arrogance and injustice, and God brings the proud down and lifts the lowly. Ben Sira reminds the proud of a humbling truth, why should dust and ashes be proud?, that they are mortal, their standing on loan, their thrones held only as long as God permits. Power without humility is always on a countdown.

Whatever authority or standing I hold, do I hold it humbly, remembering it is on loan from God, who lifts up the lowly and casts down the proud?

Sources

Sirach 10:12: "It is the beginning of pride when a man departs from the Lord. His heart has departed from him who made him."
Sirach 10:14: "The Lord cast down the thrones of rulers and set the lowly in their place."
Luke 1:52: "He has put down princes from their thrones, and has exalted the lowly."