Context No. 3063 of 4322 · Sirach

Sirach 27:1-16: in context

1Many have sinned for profit. He who seeks to multiply wealth will turn his eye away. 2As a nail will stick fast between the joinings of stones, so sin will thrust itself in between buying and selling. 3Unless a person holds on diligently to the fear of the Lord, his house will be overthrown quickly. 4In the shaking of a sieve, the refuse remains, so does the filth of man in his thoughts. 5The furnace tests the potter’s vessels; so the test of a person is in his thoughts. 6The fruit of a tree discloses its cultivation, so is the utterance of the thought of a person’s heart. 7Praise no man before you hear his thoughts, for this is how people are tested. 8If you follow righteousness, you will obtain it, and put it on like a long robe of glory. 9Birds will return to their own kind, so truth will return to those who practice it. 10The lion lies in wait for prey. So does sin for those who do evil. 11The discourse of a godly man is always wise, but the fool changes like the moon. 12Limit your time among people void of understanding, but persevere among the thoughtful. 13The talk of fools is offensive. Their laughter is wantonly sinful. 14Their talk with much swearing makes hair stand upright. Their strife makes others plug their ears. 15The strife of the proud leads to bloodshed. Their abuse of each other is a grievous thing to hear. 16He who reveals secrets destroys trust, and will not find a close friend.

Ben Sira warns that many have sinned for the sake of profit, and that sin wedges itself, as a nail sticks fast between stones, right between buying and selling. He goes on to say that a person's true self is revealed in speech, as fruit reveals a tree's cultivation, and that you should praise no one until you have heard him reason.

Two threads run through the passage. Sin creeps easily into commerce; the marketplace is a place of constant moral testing, where small dishonesties quietly wedge in between the buying and the selling. And the true test of a person is in their words and thoughts: the fruit of a tree discloses its cultivation, and the speech of a person discloses the thought of the heart. What comes out in our talk reveals what we actually are. In the long run, the heart cannot be hidden; it shows in how we speak and how we deal.

Does the way I speak, and the way I deal in buying and selling, reveal a heart cultivated in the fear of the Lord, or one where sin has quietly wedged in?

Sources

Sirach 27:2: "As a nail will stick fast between the joinings of stones, so sin will thrust itself in between buying and selling."
Sirach 27:6: "The fruit of a tree discloses its cultivation, so is the utterance of the thought of a person's heart."
Luke 6:45: "Out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks."