Scripture Daily

Context No. 962 of 4322 · Sirach

Context · Reflection

Sirach 32:1-16: in context

1Have they made you ruler of a feast? Don’t be lifted up. Be among them as one of them. Take care of them first, and then sit down. 2And when you have done all your duties, take your place, that you may be gladdened on their account, and receive a wreath for your good service. 3Speak, you who are older, for it’s your right, but with sound knowledge; and don’t interrupt the music. 4Don’t pour out talk where there is a performance of music. Don’t display your wisdom at the wrong time. 5As a ruby signet in a setting of gold, so is a music concert at a wine banquet. 6As an emerald signet in a work of gold, so is musical melody with pleasant wine. 7Speak, young man, if you are obliged to, but no more than twice, and only if asked. 8Sum up your speech, many things in few words. Be as one who knows and yet holds his tongue. 9When among great men, don’t behave as their equal. When another is speaking, don’t babble. 10Lightning speeds before thunder. Approval goes before one who is modest. 11Rise up in good time, and don’t be last. Go home quickly and don’t loiter 12Amuse yourself there and do what is in your heart. Don’t sin by proud speech. 13For these things bless your Maker, who gives you to drink freely of his good things. 14He who fears the Lord will receive discipline. Those who seek him early will find favor. 15He who seeks the law shall be filled with it, but the hypocrite will stumble at it. 16Those who fear the Lord will find true judgment, and will kindle righteous acts like a light.

Ben Sira gives practical wisdom for social settings, especially banquets. If they have made you master of the feast, do not put on airs; be among the guests as one of them, see to their needs first, and only then take your own seat. Let the older speak, but with knowledge, and do not interrupt the music. If you are young, speak only if asked, and briefly; be like one who knows and yet holds his tongue. Do not act as an equal among the great. And through it all, he says, bless your Maker who gives you these good things; the one who fears the Lord will accept discipline.

The thread running through all this etiquette is humility that serves. The man put in charge of the feast is told the opposite of what power usually does: do not be lifted up, take care of them first, be one of them. Leadership, in Ben Sira's world, means serving the guests before seating yourself, which is exactly the posture Jesus will command and embody. And the counsel to the young, speak briefly and only when asked, be as one who knows and yet holds his tongue, is a lost art, the discipline of not needing to display everything you know the moment you could. Real wisdom, the passage suggests, often looks like restraint: the host who serves before he sits, the young man who could speak but chooses to listen, the one who holds his tongue not from ignorance but from self-command. And it grounds all of it in the fear of the Lord, so that even table manners become a small school of humility before God.

In the rooms where I could speak or take the honored seat, do I display myself, or practice the harder wisdom of serving first and holding my tongue?

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