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From: Sirach 17:1-15

God and Man

[1] The Lord created man out of earth,
and turned him back to it again.
[2] He gave to men few days, a limited time,
but granted them authority over the things upon the earth.
[3] He endowed them with strength like his own,
and made them in his own image.
[4] He placed the fear of them in all living beings,
and granted them dominion over beasts and birds.
[6] He made for them tongue and eyes;
He gave them ears and a mind for thinking.
[7] He filled them with knowledge and understanding,
and showed them good and evil.
[8] He set his eye upon their hearts
to show them the majesty of his works.
[10] And they will praise his holy name,
to proclaim the grandeur of his works.
[11] He bestowed knowledge upon them,
and allotted to them the law of life.
[12] He established with them an eternal covenant,
and showed them his judgments.
[13] Their eyes saw his glorious majesty,
and their ears heard the glory of his voice.
[14] And he said to them, “Beware of all unrighteousness.”
And he gave commandment to each of them concerning his neighbor.

The Divine Judge. A Call to Repentance

[15] Their ways are always before him,
they will not be hid from his eyes.”

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Commentary:

16:24-23:27. These chapters are the second of the five parts we can distinguish
in the book of Sirach. Like all the other parts it opens with doctrinal instruction
(16:24-18:14), dealing this time with the divine Wisdom manifested by the Crea-
tor in all his works; this is followed (18:15-23:27) by a series of practical tea-
chings. As in the previous part it is not easy to see any clear order in the ma-
xims. However, further emphasis is put here on prudence in speech.

16:24-18:14 The doctrinal introduction to the first part of the book (1:1-2:18) sum-
marized the main ideas in the book and put the focus, mainly, on the Lord, the
only God, as being the source of wisdom. Now the author goes on to explain that,
in creating the universe, the Most High arranged all his works in order and laid
down laws to govern them (16:27). First (cf. 16:24-31) we find teachings from the
first chapters of Genesis: creation took place “from [in] the beginning” (16:26a;
Gen 1:1); God determined the order of things (16:26b; Gen 1:3-2:3); with the re-
sult that it “was good” (Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31 and Sir 16:29b) and “he
covered its surface with all kinds of living beings” (16:30; Gen 1:20-31).

Pre-eminent among these created beings is man, made in the image of God (cf.
17:3; Gen 1:26-27). When it sees the harmony of the universe and all the living
things that populate it, the human mind can recognize that there is a pattern to
all this and can work its way up to God (17: 1-10). St Paul, in his Letter to the
Romans, makes the point, again that “his (God’s) invisible nature, namely, his
eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been
made” (Rom 1:20). In addition, man has been given divine law to help him lead
a life in line with what God has revealed to him over the course of time. And the
supernatural revelation of the Law through Moses makes God’s wisdom shine
even brighter (17:11-17).

This brings the writer to reflect on God as Judge, and on man as someone who
must render an account to his creator, not just as regards his external actions
but as regards even his inmost thoughts. This is a well-argued case for conver-
sion to God (cf. 17:19-32). Ben Sirach has clear ideas about the meaning of life
and death, but the New Testament sees further. He knows that the Lord will “re-
compense” people (cf. 17:23), but he does not go so far as to say that there is
life after death (17:27-31).In any event, for the author the main thing is to give
praise to God (17:27-29); hence his call to conversion (17:24, 26, 29).

The doctrinal introduction to this second part of the book concludes with reflec-
tions on the majesty and compassion of God—so vast compared to man (18:1-
14).Having established just how limited man is, Ben Sirach asks himself: What
is man, and what good can he do? God is under no obligation to care for man,
to encourage him to do good or to guard him against evil. This sapiential style
of writing is rhetorical: it is meant to draw attention to God’s kindness and mer-
cy towards man. The sacred writer does not have access to God’s last revela-
tion in the form of Jesus Christ; but by contemplating God’s favors to Israel he
is able to get more insights into man and the nature of man. John Paul II points
out that: “These are questions in every human heart, as the poetic genius of
every time and every people has shown, posing again and again — almost as
the prophetic voice of humanity — the “serious question” which makes human
beings truly what they are.

They are questions which express the urgency of finding a reason for existence,
in every moment, at life’s most important and decisive times as well as more or-
dinary times. These questions show the deep reasonableness of human exis-
tence, since they summon human intelligence and will to search freely for a solu-
tion which can reveal the full meaning of life. These enquiries, therefore, are the
highest expression of human nature; which is why the answer to them is the
gauge of the depth of his engagement with his own existence. In particular, when
“the why of things” is explored in full harmony with the search for the ultimate an-
swer, then human reason reaches its zenith and opens to the religious impulse.
The religious impulse is the highest expression of the human being’s free and per-
sonal search for the divine” (”Fides Et Ratio”, note 28).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.