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From: Sirach 35:1-12
Worship pleasing to God
[11] For the Lord is the one who repays,
and he will repay you sevenfold.
[12] Do not offer him a bribe, for he will not accept it;
and do not trust to an unrighteous sacrifice;
for the Lord is the judge, and with him is no partiality.
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Commentary:
1-11 Ben Sirach has nothing against religious ceremonies; on the contrary; the
Law prescribes the offerings that should be made to God, and it should be gene-
rously adhered to (cf. 35:10). However, he has three very clear things to say that
help to personalize religious worship: almsgiving is an act of worship (35:2); an
upright life, that keeps to the Law, is an offering pleasing to God (35:3); and of-
ferings to the Lord should be generously and gladly made (35:4-10).
From 35:11 on, the Lord is the subject of the sentences. Ben Sirach tells us who
God is: he pays well (35:11), he is a just judge (35:11-15), who rewards a person
according to his works; and he identifies the person whom God listens to — the
generous giver (35:11);, the one who is wronged (35:13), the orphan and the wi-
dow (35:14), the one who serves Him (35:16), the humble person (35:17). Most
of these qualities (those of God as well as those of people who have recourse to
him) can be found, all together, in Jesusâ attitude to the sick, to sinners and to
the poor.
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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.