Context No. 770 of 4322 · Sirach
Context · Reflection
Sirach 11:18-34: in context
18One grows rich by his diligence and self-denial, and this is the portion of his reward: 19when he says, “I have found rest, and now I will eat of my goods!” he doesn’t know how much time will pass until he leaves them to others and dies. 20Be steadfast in your covenant and be doing it, and grow old in your work. 21Don’t marvel at the works of a sinner, but trust the Lord and stay in your labor; for it is an easy thing in the sight of the Lord to swiftly and suddenly make a poor man rich. 22The Lord’s blessing is in the reward of the godly. He makes his blessing flourish in an hour that comes swiftly. 23Don’t say, “What use is there of me? What further good things can be mine?” 24Don’t say, “I have enough. What harm could happen to me now?” 25In the day of good things, bad things are forgotten. In the day of bad things, a man will not remember things that are good. 26For it is an easy thing in the sight of the Lord to reward a man in the day of death according to his ways. 27The affliction of an hour causes delights to be forgotten. In the end, a man’s deeds are revealed. 28Call no man happy before his death. A man will be known in his children. 29Don’t bring every man into your house, for many are the tricks of a deceitful man. 30Like a decoy partridge in a cage, so is the heart of a proud man. Like a spy, he looks for your weakness. 31For he lies in wait to turn things that are good into evil, and assigns blame in things that are praiseworthy. 32From a spark of fire, a heap of many coals is kindled, and a sinful man lies in wait to shed blood. 33Take heed of an evil-doer, for he plans wicked things, lest perhaps he ruin your reputation forever. 34Receive a stranger into your house, and he will distract you with arguments and estrange you from your own family.
Sirach watches a familiar figure: the man who works hard and denies himself for years and finally arrives. One grows rich by his diligence, Sirach says, and then the day comes when he tells himself, I have found rest, and now I will eat of my goods. It is the moment he has been saving toward, the sigh of a man who thinks he has finally made it. And Sirach lets the next clause fall like a weight. He does not know how much time will pass until he leaves them to others and dies. The rest he thought he had bought turns out to belong to whoever inherits it.
It is the same picture Jesus would paint of the rich fool who pulled down his barns to build bigger ones and said to his soul, take your ease, only to hear, this night your soul is required of you. Sirach draws the practical conclusion twice. Do not presume on tomorrow's ease, and do not measure a life too soon: call no one happy before his death, he says, because good days make the bad forgotten and a single hard hour can undo years of comfort, and a person is finally known only when the whole course is run. The one who has just settled back to enjoy it all may be nearer the end than he thinks.
The man finally said now I will rest and enjoy it, not knowing how little time was left. What am I storing up toward a day of ease I am simply assuming will come, as if tomorrow were promised to me?
Sources
- Luke 12:16-21: the rich fool who says take your ease, and hears, this night your soul is required of you
- Ecclesiastes 2:18-21: the toil left to another who did not labor for it
- Sirach 11:28: call no one happy before his death, for a life is known only at its end