Context No. 3226 of 4322 · Sirach

Sirach 47:17-25: in context

17For your songs, proverbs, parables, and interpretations, the countries marveled at you. 18By the name of the Lord God, who is called the God of Israel, you gathered gold like tin, and multiplied silver like lead. 19You bowed your loins to women, and in your body you were brought into subjection. 20You blemished your honor, and defiled your offspring, to bring wrath upon your children. I was grieved for your folly, 21because the sovereignty was divided, and a disobedient kingdom ruled out of Ephraim. 22But the Lord will never forsake his mercy. He won’t destroy any of his works, nor blot out the posterity of his elect. He won’t take away the offspring of him who loved him. He gave a remnant to Jacob, and to David a root from his own family. 23So Solomon rested with his fathers. Of his offspring, he left behind him Rehoboam, the foolishness of the people, and one who lacked understanding, who made the people revolt by his counsel. Also Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, and gave a way of sin to Ephraim. 24Their sins were multiplied exceedingly, until they were removed from their land. 25For they sought out all manner of wickedness, until vengeance came upon them.

Sirach's portrait of Solomon holds the great and the tragic together. His songs and proverbs and wisdom amazed the nations; he gathered gold like tin. And yet, Sirach says, he gave himself to women and stained his honor, bringing wrath upon his children, so that the kingdom was divided after him. Great gifts did not protect him from a divided heart.

Solomon's wisdom astonished the world, and still he defiled his honor, and the kingdom was torn in two once he was gone. Even the wise can be undone by a heart divided among many loves. But the passage does not end in despair: the Lord will never forsake his mercy; he gave a remnant to Jacob, and to David a root from his own family. Even after Solomon's failure and the kingdom's collapse, God preserved a remnant and a root, the line from which the Messiah would come. Human failure, even in the wise, does not defeat God's mercy or overturn his covenant.

When I see great gifts undone by a divided heart, do I still trust that God's mercy preserves a remnant and keeps his covenant despite human failure?

Sources

Sirach 47:22: "But the Lord will never forsake his mercy... He gave a remnant to Jacob, and to David a root from his own family."
1 Kings 11:4: "When Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods."
Isaiah 11:1: "A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit."