Context No. 3619 of 4322 · Sirach

Sirach 4:1-16: in context

1My son, don’t deprive the poor of his living. Don’t make the needy eyes wait long. 2Don’t make a hungry soul sorrowful, or provoke a man in his distress. 3Don’t add more trouble to a heart that is provoked. Don’t put off giving to him who is in need. 4Don’t reject a suppliant in his affliction. Don’t turn your face away from a poor man. 5Don’t turn your eye away from one who asks. Give no occasion to a man to curse you. 6For if he curses you in the bitterness of his soul, he who made him will hear his supplication. 7Endear yourself to the assembly. Bow your head to a great man. 8Incline your ear to a poor man. Answer him with peaceful words in humility. 9Deliver him who is wronged from the hand of him who wrongs him; Don’t be hesitant in giving judgment. 10Be as a father to the fatherless, and like a husband to their mother. So you will be as a son of the Most High, and he will love you more than your mother does. 11Wisdom exalts her sons, and takes hold of those who seek her. 12He who loves her loves life. Those who seek her early will be filled with gladness. 13He who holds her fast will inherit glory. Where he enters, the Lord will bless. 14Those who serve her minister to the Holy One. The Lord loves those who love her. 15He who listens to her will judge the nations. He who heeds her will dwell securely. 16If he trusts her, he will inherit her, and his generations will possess her.

Sirach gives tender, practical instruction about the poor and the vulnerable. Do not make the hungry wait, or turn your face away from a poor man; do not turn your eye from one who asks; be a father to the fatherless and like a husband to their mother. And he adds a striking motive: so you will be like a child of God, and he will love you.

To care for the poor and the fatherless is to reflect God's own heart, and to be counted among his children. And he warns: if the poor curse you in the bitterness of their soul, the One who made them will hear their cry. God takes personally how the vulnerable are treated. The second half of the passage praises wisdom, whose true fruit is exactly this kind of love; those who love and seek her are exalted and blessed. There is a deep connection here: real wisdom expresses itself in compassion for the poor and the fatherless, and God loves those who love his little ones.

Do I care for the poor, the hungry, and the fatherless as God's own children, reflecting his heart, knowing that he hears the cry of the vulnerable and loves those who love them?

Sources

Sirach 4:10: "Be as a father to the fatherless, and like a husband to their mother. So you will be as a son of the Most High, and he will love you."
Sirach 4:1: "My son, don't deprive the poor of his living. Don't make the needy eyes wait long."
Sirach 4:6: "For if he curses you in the bitterness of his soul, he who made him will hear his supplication."