Sir. 3:8-9 has already been discussed above with respect to its comment on collective punishment, but it also expresses the notion of collective reward: “My son, with your word and your deed honor your father so that all blessings will come upon you. The blessing of a father strengthens the root, but the curse of a mother uproots a plant.” Children coveted a father’s blessing in ancient Israel, as several stories in Genesis indicate (cf. Gen. 9:27; 27:27-38; 28:1, 6; 48:15-16; 49:25-26).314 Such a blessing “strengthens the root,” a metaphor for preserving and nurturing the father’s lineage.315
Ben Sira 26:19-21
Although not extant in the Hebrew text,316 Sir. 26:19-21 offers insight into Israel’s wisdom tradition’s understanding of collective reward: “My child, keep sound the bloom of your youth, and do not give your strength to strangers. Seek a fertile field within the whole plain, and sow it with your own seed, trusting in your fine stock. So your offspring will prosper, and, having confidence in their good descent, will grow great.” Ben Sira’s advice metaphorically discourages exogamy. The offspring produced by an endogamous marriage enjoy success and have assurance in their lineage. Biblical justification for Ben Sira’s advice is compelling. Figures as illustrious and as wise as Solomon find their downfall in marriage to foreign women, under whose influence their children turn away from exclusive worship of YHWH. Tales such as that of Dinah and Shechem in Gen. 34 or Zimri and the Midianite woman in Numb. 25 deal unfavorably with the issue of exogamy, and didactic legal materials, like Deut. 7:3-4, make clear the perils of intermarriage with non-Israelites. Although several stories—like those of Tamar in Gen. 38, Ruth in the Book of Ruth, and Rahab in Josh. 6—depict heroic and righteous foreign women who intermarry with Israelite men to help preserve the lineage of the Davidic line, the issue remained a divisive one in ancient Israel, as evidenced by Persian- period texts like Ezra 10 and Neh. 10:30; 13:25. Joseph Blenkinsopp has proposed that
315 Ibid., 156.
316 Di Lella and Skehan regard the passage as original, nonetheless. Ibid., 346, 351. Di Lella, Alexander
and Patrick William Skehan. Das Buch Jesus Sirach Oder Ecclesiasticus Übersetzt Und Erklärt (Münster in Westfalen: Aschendorff Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1913), 218.
the Persian period constitutes a likely background for the long discourse on the dangers of the “Outsider Woman” in Prov. 1-9.317
The issue remained pertinent also in Ben Sira’s era when Judean culture traded customs and ideas with the Hellenistic world. Like the Israelite wisdom preceding it, the advice found in Sir. 26:19-21 for the pupil facing these pressures is to marry within one’s own social group so as to produce benefits for his offspring.
Ben Sira 26:26c
Although Ben Sira frequently expresses negative judgments about women and their deleterious effects on men, he does acknowledge and praise the benefits of a virtuous wife: “…Happy is the husband of a good wife; for the number of his years will be doubled.” To judge from the surrounding discourse, which primarily focuses on women who are social outcasts, the virtuous wife’s merits lie in her modesty and ability to bring honor to her husband (v. 26a-b). The man who marries a virtuous woman will ensure for himself longevity. Ben Sira clearly envisions a great reward for the man wise enough to attach himself to a good woman, but the mechanism through which this reward is achieved is not explicit. If Ben Sira’s advice is meant to be a practical observation of observed reality, it is not at all clear how a wife whose modesty and social graces bring her husband honor could also physically extend his life. The sage’s wisdom may be considered hyperbolic and pedagogical. Great benefits await the one who chooses his wife wisely. The nature of this reward is not a divine gift but rather the natural consequence of close association with a person of good character.
Ben Sira 37:12
As in the previous two examples discussed, Ben Sira 37:12 acknowledges again the possibility of intragenerational accountability in which a group or individual prospers through association with one meritorious individual: “Only associate with the one who is fearing continually, who you know keeps the commandments, who in his heart is like your heart. If you stumble, he will strike you.” The Hebrew text preserves two textual variants for the final colon of this verse, one of which is supported by the Greek: “If you stumble, he will suffer with you.” The Hebrew reading does not unambiguously convey a notion of reward, but the point of both readings seems to be that a person can benefit in some way from associating with righteous, pious individuals. As Di Lella notes, Ben Sira’s description of such a person implies that the pupil should surround himself with those who provide wise counsel.318 Here the notion of collective accountability seems quite practical; if the student associates only with those who provide wise counsel, he will benefit from the application of sage advice to his own life.319
Ben Sira 44:8-13
In his Praise of the Ancestors, Ben Sira offers several insights into his understanding of collective reward. He suggests that the descendants of righteous men will benefit because of their ancestors’ merits:
(8) There are some of them who have left a name to gaze on their portion. (9) There are some of them for whom there is no remembrance; they ceased as though they never existed, along with their children after them. (10) However, these were men of loving kindness/mercy (hΩsd⋲), and their
righteousness will not be cut off. (11) With their seed their goodness (wealth) is trusted, and their inheritance is for their children’s children. (12) In their covenant their descendants stand, and their offspring, for their
318 Di Lella and Skehan, Wisdom of Ben Sira, 433.
319 This calls to mind the case of Rehoboam, which Ben Sira also recalls in 47:23. The young king had
access to wise counsel but chose instead to follow the advice of his peers, who lacked the wisdom of his elders (1 Kings 12).
sake. (13) Their seed will stand forever and their glory will not be wiped away. (Sir. 44:8-13)
Although the identity of the men with no remembrance may be ambiguous,320 the rewards awaiting individuals of lovingkindness are great. “Lovingkindness,” hΩesed⋲, is a characteristic that YHWH uses to define his own character in Exodus 34:6-7. As Exodus 34:7 promises, YHWH keeps his hΩesed⋲, “lovingkindness” to the thousandth generation, or forever. Likewise, as vv. 12-13 observe, God will keep his hΩesed⋲, “lovingkindness,” for the descendants of these righteous men forever. Fidelity to the covenant and emulation of a divine attribute ensure the continuance of one’s lineage.
Ben Sira 44:17-22
Noah is among the first named forefathers praised in Ben Sira’s hymn: (17) Noah was found righteous and perfect; in the time of destruction he was the continuation. On account of him there was a remnant, and by his covenant, the flood ceased. (18) An eternal sign was cut with him never to destroy all flesh. (Sir. 44:17-18)
According to the sage, Noah’s righteousness produced the remnant from which all of humanity descends. All humans owe their existence to God’s intergenerational rewarding of Noah’s righteousness, and they are protected against future catastrophic
320 Box and Oesterley understand the verse to refer to “godless kings, doubtless of the northern kingdom.”
Box and Oesterley, “The Book of Sirach,” 481. Ben Sira’s concern elsewhere for the preservation of one’s name may suggest that v. 9 refers to ungodly men of whom there is no memory. However, this is unlikely because it requires multiple awkward shifts in subject.Pancratius C. Beentjes, “The ‘Praise of the Famous’ and Its Prologue,” in “Happy the One Who Meditates on Wisdom” (Sir. 14,20): Collected Essays on the
Book of Ben Sira (Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2006), 126–127. Harrington, Jesus Ben Sira of Jerusalem,
59–60. Di Lella suggests that the passage refers to pious men whose names have been forgotten due to the frailty of human memory but whose deeds persist in divine memory. Di Lella and Skehan, Wisdom of Ben
Sira, 501. If vv. 8-9 are to be understood as referring to great men whose names have been forgotten, the
verses may compare to the notion expressed in Wisdom 3:1-3. Jeremy Corley, “Sirach 44:1-15 as Introduction to the Praise of the Ancestors,” in Studies in the Book of Ben Sira: Papers of the Third
International Conference on the Deuterocanonical Books, Shime’on Centre, Pápa, Hungary, 18-20 May, 2006, ed. Géza G. Xeravits and József Zsengellér (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 171.
devastation because of the intergenerational nature of the covenant formed between God and Noah. Abraham also produces intergenerational benefits for his descendants:
(19) Abraham was the father of a multitude of nations, and none has been found like him in glory. (20) He kept the law of the Most High and entered into a covenant with him. With his flesh he made the covenant, and when he was tested, he was found faithful. (21) Therefore, with the swearing of an oath he assured him that he would bless the nations through his seed, that they would inherit from sea to sea and from the Euphrates to the ends of the earth. (22) Also to Isaac he assured (a son) for the sake of Abraham his father. He has given him the covenant of all the ancestors. (Sir. 44:19-22)
In addition to the Abrahamic blessing of the nations through Abraham’s seed, Isaac, also benefits for the sake of his father. Ben Sira recounts historical episodes of collective reward when praising the forefathers. Their merits continue to have lasting benefits hundreds of generations later, just as YHWH promises in Exodus 34:6-7.
Ben Sira 47:22
In his presentation of Solomon’s kingship, Ben Sira notes the king’s changed fortunes. Although he “overflowed like the Nile with understanding” in his youth (Sir. 47:14), he later falls victim to activities characteristic of a fool:
(19) But you gave your loins to women, and through your body you were ruled. (20) You put a stain upon your honor and you stained your couch, so that you brought anger upon your offspring and sighing upon your bed. (21) Your kingdom became two tribes, and from Ephraim came a kingdom of violence. (Sir. 47:19-21)
Although his kingdom is initially glorious, Solomon’s behavior is worthy of punishment, and so his kingdom is divided and his offspring now suffer. Nevertheless, Ben Sira takes a long view of political history:
But the Lord will not forsake his mercy, and he will not destroy any of his words, and he will not wipe out his chosen offspring, and the seed of one loving him he will not remove. To Jacob he gave a remnant and to David one of his own root. And Solomon rested with his fathers, and he left after
him one of his seed, foolish and lacking in understanding, Rehoboam, who removed the people from his counsel. (Sir. 47:22)
Solomon is indebted to God’s favoring of his father David for his own peaceful reign over a united monarchy despite his sins (Sir. 47:12).321 Although Solomon’s offspring suffer on account of his love of foreign women, the Davidic line persists because of YHWH’s covenantal fidelity to Solomon’s father.322 As he promised in Exodus 34:6-7 to Moses, YHWH will reward to the thousandth generation the offspring of the one who loves him, like David. Likewise, although the Northern Kingdom will suffer on account of continual political upheaval in royal succession, the southern kingdom will have a remnant on account of YHWH’s promise to the eponymous ancestors of the kingdom.
IV. Rejection of Collective Punishment in Ben Sira