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Sirach - Overview

26 min read

Audio narration

Sirach is Scripture for forming the ordinary life of wisdom under God. It teaches the soul how to fear the Lord, receive correction, speak soberly, honor parents, care for the poor, resist presumption, discern friends, use money without worshiping it, suffer temptation without panic, and stand before creation and worship with reverence. It is not ancient self-help. It is a school of practical holiness.

The book belongs in the Orthodox Old Testament because the Church receives the Old Testament through the broader Septuagintal and ecclesial tradition. It is absent from common NKJV Bibles because those editions normally follow the Protestant 66-book canon, not because Sirach was unknown to ancient Christians, and not because every modern translation omits it. The real issue is canon and reception.

Sirach is especially important because it names its own transmission problem. The grandson of Ben Sira says he translated his grandfather’s Hebrew wisdom into Greek in Egypt, and he warns that translated words do not always carry the same force as the original. That makes Sirach a perfect book for teaching the Church how to read carefully: reverently, canonically, historically, and without pretending text-history questions do not exist.

Introduction to Sirach in Codex Sinaiticus Source: Introduction to Sirach in Codex Sinaiticus, public domain via Wikimedia Commons. Teaching visual only, not an Orthodox iconographic authority.

Why Sirach Is in Orthodox Bibles, and Why Common NKJV Bibles Omit It

The direct answer: Sirach is in Orthodox Bibles because the Orthodox Church receives it as part of the deuterocanonical Old Testament. It is usually absent from common NKJV Bibles because common NKJV editions follow the Protestant Old Testament canon, which does not include Sirach.

That difference needs to be explained calmly. Sirach was not recently added by the Orthodox Church. It was preserved in the Greek biblical tradition, appears in ancient Christian manuscript tradition, and was received in the Church’s broader Old Testament life. The Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles lists it as “Wisdom of Joshua, Son of Sirach” among the deuterocanonical books and warns against using “Apocrypha” as if these books were false or rejected writings. The North African canonical witness associated with Hippo and Carthage also includes Sirach under the old grouping called the five books of Solomon, normally understood as Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus/Sirach.

The Protestant difference comes from a different canonical boundary. Jerome gave special weight to the Hebrew canon and explicitly distinguished the book of Jesus son of Sirach from that Hebrew-canon list. At the Reformation, many Protestant traditions gave priority to that narrower Hebrew-canon boundary for the Old Testament. Early Protestant Bibles often still printed the deuterocanonical books in a separate Apocrypha section. Later Protestant publishing practice often omitted that section entirely. Common NKJV editions inherit this Protestant canon and publishing pattern.

So the pastoral answer is not, “The NKJV is bad,” or, “Modern translations removed Sirach.” That is too sloppy. The better answer is:

The NKJV edition you usually see follows the Protestant canon. The Orthodox Church receives a broader Old Testament through the Septuagintal and ecclesial tradition, and Sirach belongs to that received tradition.

This distinction matters because many modern English translations can be printed in editions with the deuterocanonical books. The absence is not mainly a modern-language issue. It is a canon issue.

Why Sirach Is Connected to the Septuagint

Strictly speaking, Septuagint first refers to the ancient Greek translation of the Pentateuch. In Christian usage, however, the term often refers more broadly to the Greek Old Testament collection received and used by the ancient Church. Sirach belongs to that broader Greek Old Testament tradition.

Sirach is unusual because the book itself tells us something about its transmission. In Brenton’s English Septuagint source used for this project, the grandson’s prologue is folded into Sirach 1:1. The prologue says that Ben Sira’s grandson found his grandfather’s book, labored to translate it in Egypt, and asked readers to be patient because translation from Hebrew into Greek is difficult:

…my grandfather Jesus, when he had much given himself to the reading of the law, and the prophets, and other books of our fathers, and had gotten therein good judgment, was drawn on also himself to write something pertaining to learning and wisdom… Wherefore let me intreat you to read it with favour and attention, and to pardon us, wherein we may seem to come short of some words, which we have laboured to interpret; for the same things uttered in Hebrew, and translated into another tongue, have not the same force in them. And not only these things, but the law itself, and the prophets, and the rest of the books, have no small difference, when they are spoken in their own language.

That prologue gives the book a rare kind of transparency. Sirach was composed in Hebrew by Ben Sira, a Jerusalem sage, and translated into Greek by his grandson in Egypt. Later Hebrew witnesses from the Cairo Genizah, Qumran, and Masada confirm that there really was a Hebrew textual history behind the Greek book, even though Sirach did not enter the later Jewish canon in the way Proverbs or Ecclesiastes did.

For Orthodox readers, this should not create anxiety. It should create sobriety. The Church did not receive the Old Testament as a private modern reconstruction of ancient fragments. The Church received Scripture in worship, proclamation, teaching, manuscript transmission, and ecclesial use. Sirach’s Hebrew roots and Greek reception both matter.

Source-Shape Note for This Project

Embedded Sirach passages in this project use Brenton’s English Septuagint unless a later guide says otherwise. The local Brenton extraction helper confirms several verse-numbering gaps in Sirach’s USFX source. These gaps should be named where they affect quoted ranges, not silently renumbered.

Confirmed missing numeric slots in the local Brenton source include:

ChapterPresent rangeMissing numeric verse slots
Sirach 11-305, 7, 21
Sirach 31-3119, 25
Sirach 101-3121
Sirach 111-3415, 16
Sirach 131-2614
Sirach 161-3015, 16
Sirach 171-325, 9, 16, 18, 21
Sirach 181-333
Sirach 191-3018, 19, 21
Sirach 221-277, 8
Sirach 241-3418, 24
Sirach 251-2612
Sirach 261-2919-27

This is not a spiritual problem. It is a teaching honesty issue. When a quoted range crosses one of these gaps, the guide should either quote around the gap or tell the reader that Brenton’s numbering differs from another edition.

How to Read Sirach in the Church

Sirach is close to Proverbs in form, but not identical in burden. Proverbs often sounds like a father training a son in the fear of the Lord. Sirach sounds like a mature teacher gathering wisdom, law, worship, creation, household order, social discernment, and Israel’s memory into one large catechesis.

The book asks questions that belong directly to Orthodox life:

  • Can wisdom remain practical without becoming worldly cleverness?
  • Can a Christian speak truth without letting the tongue become a weapon?
  • Can mercy for the poor become part of righteousness rather than a public virtue signal?
  • Can correction be received without resentment?
  • Can family honor, especially honor for parents, be taught without sentimentality?
  • Can the reader learn discernment about friendship, wealth, rulers, doctors, grief, work, shame, and death?
  • Can creation itself train the soul to praise?
  • Can worship become the crown of wisdom rather than a compartment of life?

Sirach must not be flattened into etiquette, moralism, or ancient advice. Its spiritual center is the fear of the Lord. It teaches the whole person to live under God: mouth, money, appetite, family, memory, worship, and death.

Historical and Scriptural Context

Sirach was written in the world of Second Temple Judaism, before the New Testament and before the Maccabean crisis fully reshaped Jewish life. The author is traditionally known as Jesus son of Sirach, or Ben Sira. The book presents him as a man deeply formed by “the law and the prophets, and other books of our fathers.” It is a wisdom book, but its wisdom is not detached philosophy. Wisdom is bound to the Law, to worship, to creation, and to the covenant life of Israel.

This matters for Christian readers because Sirach stands near the threshold between the older wisdom tradition and the world into which Christ comes. It does not replace Proverbs. It extends the wisdom tradition into a later historical setting, where Jewish identity, Greek language, diaspora life, temple worship, and moral formation all press together.

Sirach historical locator map Source: Hermes teaching schematic, 2026-06-19, based on broad early second-century BC historical context. Broad locator only, not a precision historical reconstruction.

This map is intentionally simple. It helps readers picture Ben Sira teaching in Jerusalem’s Second Temple world while Judea stood between larger Hellenistic powers, without pretending that a wisdom book depends on exact military borders.

The opening theological line is simple and weighty:

  1. …All wisdom cometh from the Lord, and is with him for ever.
  2. Who can number the sand of the sea, and the drops of rain, and the days of eternity?
  3. Who can find out the height of heaven, and the breadth of the earth, and the deep, and wisdom?
  4. Wisdom hath been created before all things, and the understanding of prudence from everlasting.

Sirach begins by making wisdom larger than technique. Wisdom is not merely what helps a person succeed. Wisdom comes from the Lord and returns the person to the Lord.

Guardrail: Sirach’s language of Wisdom being created before all things must not be lifted out of context as a claim that the Son of God is created. Here Ben Sira is speaking of wisdom as God’s ancient gift ordered into creation and human life. Christian reading confesses Christ as the uncreated Wisdom and Word of God (1 Corinthians 1:24; Colossians 2:3), and reads Sirach’s created-wisdom language without Arianizing it.

The Characters 👥 and Voices

Ben Sira

Ben Sira is the primary teacher behind the book. He is not presented as a prophet in the same mode as Isaiah or Jeremiah, nor as a king like Solomon. He is a sage: a faithful teacher who has listened deeply to Scripture, observed life carefully, and gathered instruction for those willing to be formed.

The grandson-translator

The grandson is spiritually important because he makes the act of transmission visible. He honors his grandfather’s work, translates it for Jews living in another land and language, and asks the reader to receive the book with patience. He reminds the Church that Scripture has a history of faithful handing-on.

Wisdom

Wisdom appears both as divine gift and as a personified voice. In Sirach 24, Wisdom speaks in the congregation, dwells among God’s people, and takes root in Israel. Christian readers naturally hear this in the larger scriptural light of Christ, the Wisdom of God. But the teacher should avoid crude proof-texting. Sirach 24 should be read first as the book gives it: Wisdom rooted in God’s people, worship, Torah, and the holy city. Then, in the mind of the Church, Wisdom who comes from the mouth of the Most High and takes root in Israel opens toward the Incarnate Word, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3), without turning Sirach 24 into a proof-text.

King Solomon speaks with Sirach and Wisdom personified Source: King Solomon speaks with Sirach and Wisdom personified, public domain/CC0 via Wikimedia Commons. Teaching visual only, not an Orthodox iconographic authority.

The poor, the fatherless, the widow, the worker, the friend, and the family

Sirach’s “characters” are often ordinary people: the poor man, the hungry soul, the fatherless child, the widow, the debtor, the worker, the physician, the ruler, the friend, the parent, the child, the slanderer, the angry man, the mourner, the scribe, and the priest. This is one reason the book is spiritually useful. It does not let wisdom float above life. It presses wisdom into the exact places where people actually sin or become holy.

Light from the Word 🕯️

1. Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord

Sirach returns again and again to the fear of the Lord. This fear is not panic before a cruel God. It is reverent obedience, humility, and sobriety before the Creator. It makes the soul teachable.

  1. There is one wise and greatly to be feared, the Lord sitting upon his throne.
  2. He created her, and saw her, and numbered her, and poured her out upon all his works.
  3. She is with all flesh according to his gift, and he hath given her to them that love him.
  4. The fear of the Lord is honour, and glory, and gladness, and a crown of rejoicing.
  5. To fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and it was created with the faithful in the womb.
  6. The root of wisdom is to fear the Lord, and the branches thereof are long life.

This is the first teaching burden for the series. Sirach does not begin by making the reader impressive. It begins by making the reader reverent. A person who does not fear the Lord will use wisdom language to become more effective at pride.

2. Temptation is not a sign that God has abandoned the servant

Sirach 2 is one of the book’s strongest spiritual openings:

  1. My son, if thou come to serve the Lord God, prepare thy soul for temptation.
  2. Set thy heart aright, and constantly endure, and make not haste in time of trouble.
  3. Cleave unto him, and depart not away, that thou mayest be increased at thy last end.
  4. Whatsoever is brought upon thee take cheerfully, and be patient when thou art changed to a low estate.
  5. For gold is tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity.

This passage is essential for Coptic Orthodox teaching. It refuses the shallow idea that serving God means avoiding trial. It says the opposite: if you come to serve, prepare your soul. The servant should not be shocked by temptation, humiliation, delay, or adversity. Gold is tried in fire. The Christian is not trained by comfort alone.

At the same time, Sirach is not harsh. The chapter keeps returning to mercy:

  1. Look at the generations of old, and see; did ever any trust in the Lord, and was confounded? or did any abide in his fear, and was forsaken? or whom did he ever despise, that called upon him?
  2. For the Lord is full of compassion and mercy, longsuffering, and very pitiful, and forgiveth sins, and saveth in time of affliction.

The lesson is not, “Be tough.” The lesson is, “Endure because God is merciful.”

3. Mercy for the poor is not optional moral decoration

Sirach speaks with directness about the poor:

  1. My son, defraud not the poor of his living, and make not the needy eyes to wait long.
  2. Make not a hungry soul sorrowful; neither provoke a man in his distress.
  3. Add not more trouble to a heart that is vexed; and defer not to give to him that is in need.
  4. Reject not the supplication of the afflicted; neither turn away thy face from a poor man.
  5. Let it not grieve thee to bow down thine ear to the poor, and give him a friendly answer with meekness.
  6. Be as a father unto the fatherless, and instead of a husband unto their mother: so shalt thou be as the son of the most High, and he shall love thee more than thy mother doth.

This belongs directly to parish life. Sirach does not treat the poor as a ministry category. It treats the poor as persons whose cries are heard by God. The line about giving a friendly answer with meekness is especially convicting. The book does not only command material help. It commands attention, tenderness, and speech that does not humiliate the afflicted.

4. The mouth reveals formation

Sirach is relentless about speech. It warns against rash words, double speech, slander, gossip, boasting, empty confidence, and the inability to keep counsel. This is not social etiquette. It is ascetical theology. The mouth reveals the soul’s training.

The series should teach Sirach’s speech passages beside the New Testament’s teaching in James 3, Matthew 12:34-37, and Ephesians 4:29. But the Sirach text itself must lead. The book knows that a person can look religious and still be spiritually dangerous through the tongue.

5. Family honor is a school of humility

Sirach 3 appears in the verified Coptic Lenten lectionary data, and its placement is spiritually natural. Honor for father and mother is not nostalgia. It is obedience made concrete in the household. Sirach’s family teaching should be taught with care: it should affirm honor, gratitude, and responsibility without ignoring painful family realities or pretending every parent-child relationship is simple.

The key pastoral point is that wisdom begins close to home. A person who wants to appear wise in public while despising duty at home has not understood Sirach.

6. Wisdom takes root in worship and in God’s people

Sirach 24 is one of the book’s theological centers. Wisdom speaks in the congregation:

  1. Wisdom shall praise herself, and shall glory in the midst of her people.
  2. In the congregation of the most High shall she open her mouth, and triumph before his power.
  3. I came out of the mouth of the most High, and covered the earth as a cloud.
  4. So the Creator of all things gave me a commandment, and he that made me caused my tabernacle to rest, and said, Let thy dwelling be in Jacob, and thine inheritance in Israel.
  5. In the holy tabernacle I served before him; and so was I established in Sion.
  6. Come unto me, all ye that be desirous of me, and fill yourselves with my fruits.
  7. They that eat me shall yet be hungry, and they that drink me shall yet be thirsty.

Wisdom here is not private insight. Wisdom is congregational, liturgical, and rooted among God’s people. That is why Orthodox teaching should resist the temptation to read Sirach as a self-improvement book. Wisdom abides in worship. The wise man is not merely competent. He is turned toward God.

7. Creation trains praise

Sirach 42-43 gives a large vision of creation’s order and beauty. The sun, moon, stars, rainbow, snow, wind, sea, and living creatures become a school of wonder. The point is not scientific explanation. The point is reverent perception.

This section should be taught as a cure for inattentiveness. Creation is not spiritually blank. The created world does not replace God, but it bears witness to the God who orders, sustains, and beautifies it. In Coptic praise, the song of the three youths trains the Church to call sun, moon, stars, waters, fire, cold, mountains, and every creature into blessing the Lord; Sirach 42-43 belongs to that same spiritual perception, where creation becomes a mirror of the Creator’s glory and a call to unceasing praise.

8. Memory of the righteous forms the Church’s imagination

Sirach 44 begins the famous praise of the fathers:

  1. Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us.
  2. The Lord hath wrought great glory by them through his great power from the beginning.
  3. all these were honoured in their generations, and were the glory of their times.
  4. There be of them that have left a name behind them, that their praises might be reported.
  5. And some there be, which have no memorial; who are perished, as though they had never been; and are become as though they had never been born; and their children after them.
  6. But these were merciful men, whose righteousness hath not been forgotten.
  7. The people will tell of their wisdom, and the congregation will shew forth their praise.

This passage is deeply Orthodox in instinct. The Church remembers the righteous not as celebrities, but as witnesses. Memory is a form of formation. When the people tell of the wisdom of the righteous, they learn what kind of life is worth living.

9. Worship crowns wisdom

Sirach 50 gives one of the most beautiful descriptions of temple worship in the Old Testament:

  1. how was he honoured in the midst of the people in his coming out of the sanctuary!
  2. He was as the morning star in the midst of a cloud, and as the moon at the full:
  3. as the sun shining upon the temple of the most High, and as the rainbow giving light in the bright clouds…
  4. Then shouted the sons of Aaron, and sounded the silver trumpets, and made a great noise to be heard, for a remembrance before the most High.
  5. Then all the people together hasted, and fell down to the earth upon their faces to worship their Lord God Almighty, the most High.
  6. Now therefore bless ye the God of all, which only doeth wondrous things every where, which exalteth our days from the womb, and dealeth with us according to his mercy.
  7. He grant us joyfulness of heart, and that peace may be in our days in Israel for ever:
  8. that he would confirm his mercy with us, and deliver us at his time!

This is where Sirach’s wisdom finally bends toward worship. The wise life is not complete in good manners, careful speech, and social prudence. It is crowned in blessing the God of all.

Christianly, Sirach 50 is not nostalgia for a lost temple but a witness that wisdom reaches altar, blessing, and the gathered people. In Christ the true High Priest, temple, sacrifice, wisdom, and mercy meet. In Eucharistic worship, the Church’s trained mouth blesses, the body bows, the faithful receive mercy, and the people are sent to become the wisdom they have heard.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

The Coptic Orthodox lectionary references confirms that Sirach appears in the Great Lent/Jonah/Nineveh cycle as prophecy readings. This is source-backed, not merely thematic.

SourceLiturgical placeService sectionReading typeSirach reading
katameros_cycleGreat Lent/Jonah/Nineveh cycle, week 3 day 5prophecyGreatLentReadingsSirach 2:1-23
katameros_cycleGreat Lent/Jonah/Nineveh cycle, week 3 day 5prophecyGreatLentReadingsSirach 3:1-4
katameros_cycleGreat Lent/Jonah/Nineveh cycle, week 4 day 2prophecyGreatLentReadingsSirach 8:1-22
katameros_cycleGreat Lent/Jonah/Nineveh cycle, week 4 day 2prophecyGreatLentReadingsSirach 10:1-25
katameros_cycleGreat Lent/Jonah/Nineveh cycle, week 6 day 3prophecyGreatLentReadingsSirach 10:1-33
katameros_cycleGreat Lent/Jonah/Nineveh cycle, week 6 day 4prophecyGreatLentReadingsSirach 11:1-10
katameros_cycleGreat Lent/Jonah/Nineveh cycle, week 7 day 2prophecyGreatLentReadingsSirach 5:1-15

The spiritual logic is strong. Lent is a season for preparing the soul, enduring temptation, repenting of presumption, restraining the tongue, humbling the heart, honoring God in the household, and learning mercy. Sirach belongs naturally in that work.

Several companion readings in the same lectionary rows sharpen the pattern. Sirach 2 and 3 appear with Deuteronomy, Samuel, Isaiah, and Job in week 3. Sirach 8 and 10 appear with Genesis, Isaiah, and Job in week 4. Sirach 10:1-33 appears alongside Proverbs 8:22-36 in week 6. Sirach 11:1-10 appears alongside Proverbs 9:1-11. Sirach 5:1-15 appears with Proverbs 10:17-33, Isaiah, and Job in week 7. The Church is not using Sirach as a curiosity. She is placing its wisdom beside repentance, correction, suffering, and the fear of the Lord.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

1. Prepare the soul before temptation arrives

Sirach 2 does not tell the servant to improvise during trial. It says to prepare. That preparation includes patience, prayer, humility, memory of God’s mercy, and refusal to panic when the soul is lowered.

2. Let the fear of the Lord become joy, not anxiety

Sirach joins fear of the Lord with gladness, honor, long life, and peace. The fear of God is not emotional terror. It is the soul finally standing in the right place before the Creator.

3. Make mercy concrete

Sirach forces mercy into action: do not delay help, do not make hungry souls sorrowful, do not turn your face from the poor, give a meek answer, defend the oppressed, become a father to the fatherless. This is not optional philanthropy. It is wisdom embodied.

4. Let the tongue be trained by repentance

The mouth cannot be fixed by technique alone. Sirach teaches that speech must be healed by humility, restraint, truthfulness, and fear of God. In parish life this is urgent: gossip can destroy what obvious sins could not reach.

5. Receive correction without resentment

Sirach repeatedly honors instruction, counsel, and humility. The book asks whether the reader can be corrected before ruin forces correction. This is one of its deepest ascetical tests.

6. Honor the household without sentimentalizing it

Honor for parents, duties to children, marriage, friendship, and social obligations all matter in Sirach. Wisdom is tested at home. But the teacher must be pastorally careful: the point is not to erase wounds or demand silence from the hurt. The point is to form reverence, responsibility, and humility inside real family life.

7. Remember the righteous

Sirach’s praise of the fathers teaches the Church how to remember. We remember the righteous because their lives train our imagination. We become like what we honor.

8. Let worship be the crown of wisdom

Sirach ends near the altar, the blessing, the people bowing, and the prayer for mercy. That is the right ending. Wisdom reaches its fullness when the soul blesses the God of all.

How This Study Will Move Through the Book

This full Sirach study should move by major spiritual units rather than forcing every chapter into identical length.

  1. Sirach 1-2: prologue, translation, wisdom from the Lord, fear of God, and preparing the soul for temptation.
  2. Sirach 3-4: honor for parents, humility, mercy to the poor, and justice for the afflicted.
  3. Sirach 5-7: presumption, repentance, speech, money, worship, and daily discipline.
  4. Sirach 8-11: social discernment, rulers, pride, humility, appearances, and the danger of judging too quickly.
  5. Sirach 12-14: friendship, enemies, wealth, generosity, and the instability of worldly security.
  6. Sirach 15-18: freedom, sin, mercy, creation, and the call to return before judgment.
  7. Sirach 19-23: the mouth, counsel, secrecy, shame, lust, oaths, and discipline of desire.
  8. Sirach 24: Wisdom in the congregation, Wisdom’s dwelling in Israel, and Christian reading in light of Christ.
  9. Sirach 25-26: marriage, household wisdom, warnings that must be taught without misogyny, and praise of a good wife.
  10. Sirach 27-31: anger, forgiveness, business, lending, wealth, feasting, and moderation.
  11. Sirach 32-35: listening, worship, sacrifice, justice, prayer, and mercy.
  12. Sirach 36-39: counsel, friendship, physicians, grief, work, the scribe, and the praise of God’s works.
  13. Sirach 40-43: death, shame, endurance, creation, and the wonder of the ordered world.
  14. Sirach 44-49: praise of the fathers and the formation of holy memory.
  15. Sirach 50-51: Simon the high priest, temple worship, final thanksgiving, and the lifelong pursuit of wisdom.

Closing Meditation

Sirach stands before the reader and asks whether wisdom has reached the body. Does the fear of the Lord govern the tongue? Does mercy reach the poor before they are humiliated? Does humility receive correction before collapse? Does the household become a place of honor? Does creation still make the soul wonder? Does worship crown the life, or does it remain one compartment among many?

The book is merciful because it is concrete. It does not let the reader hide behind vague love for God while neglecting speech, money, family, appetite, friendship, and the poor. It teaches that wisdom is not a mood or an identity. Wisdom is life reordered under the Lord, tested in fire, made visible in mercy, remembered among the righteous, and finally offered back to the God of all in worship. The Church reads Sirach so that the baptized become a eucharistic people: receiving wisdom from God, practicing mercy in the body, and returning every gift in thanksgiving.

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