Context No. 3107 of 4322 · Sirach

Sirach 36:17-26: in context

17Listen, O Lord, to the prayer of your servants, according to the blessing of Aaron concerning your people; and all those who are on the earth will know that you are the Lord, the eternal God. 18The belly will eat any food, but one food is better than another. 19The mouth tastes meats taken in hunting, so does an understanding heart detect false speech. 20A contrary heart will cause heaviness. A man of experience will pay him back. 21A woman will receive any man, but one daughter is better than another. 22The beauty of a woman cheers the countenance. A man desires nothing more. 23If kindness and humility are on her tongue, her husband is not like other sons of men. 24He who gets a wife gets his richest treasure, a help meet for him and a pillar of support. 25Where no hedge is, the property will be plundered. He who has no wife will mourn as he wanders. 26For who would trust a nimble robber who skips from city to city? Even so, who would trust a man who has no nest, and lodges wherever he finds himself at nightfall?

Ben Sira prays for God to hear his people, then reflects on discernment, how the mind tests truth from falsehood as the palate tastes food, and then turns at length to the gift of a good marriage. He who acquires a wife, he says, gains his best possession, a helper fit for him and a pillar of support; without her, a man wanders homeless.

In the idiom of his day, Ben Sira honors the deep good of a faithful, kind marriage partner, one whose kindness and humility make the household blessed. And his images of home and shelter, that without a settled companion a man is like a wanderer with no nest, capture the stabilizing grace of a committed home. A faithful spouse is presented not as a possession to own but as a treasure and a support, a gift from God for the whole of life, and the qualities he praises, kindness, humility, steadfastness, are the very things that make a home a shelter for both.

Do I treasure the gift of a faithful companion and home, and cultivate the kindness and steadfastness that make a marriage a shelter?

Sources

Sirach 36:24: "He who gets a wife gets his richest treasure, a help meet for him and a pillar of support."
Proverbs 18:22: "Whoever finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the LORD."
Proverbs 31:10: "Who can find a worthy woman? For her price is far above rubies."