Chapter 17

The perfection of primordial humanity. The innateness of the moral law. The supplementation of natural law by revealed law. The longsuffering and mercy of God toward repentant sinners.

Sirach 17:1. The Lord created humanity from the earth and again returns it to it. 2. He gave them a determined number of days and time, and gave them dominion over all that is upon it. 3. According to their nature, He clothed them with strength and created them in His image, 4. and put fear in them toward all flesh, so that they might have dominion over the beasts and the birds. 5. He gave them understanding, tongue and eyes, and ears and heart for reflection, 6. He filled them with the penetration of reason and showed them good and evil. 7. He set His eye upon their hearts, to show them the greatness of His deeds, 8. so that they might praise His holy name and proclaim the greatness of His deeds. 1-8. The passage speaks of God’s creation of the first humans, their inner dignity, and dominion over nature; it notes the innateness in every person of the natural moral law, which prompts humanity to strive to fulfill the holy and perfect will of the Creator. (The Lord set His eye upon their hearts, that is, of humans, to show them the greatness of His deeds); the passage indicates the direction of humans’ holy, God-pleasing life (so that they might praise His holy name and proclaim the greatness of His deeds).

Sirach 17:9. He added knowledge to them and gave them the law of life as an inheritance; 10. an eternal covenant He established with them and showed them His judgments. 11. The greatness of His glory their eyes saw, and the glory of His voice their ears heard. 12. And He said to them, “Beware of all unrighteousness”; and He commanded each of them regarding their duty to the neighbor. 9-12. The passage speaks of the conferment upon humanity, supplementing the weakened natural moral law after the fall, of revealed law, written out in clear, definite letters, precisely indicating to humans the immutable path of true knowledge of God and God-pleasing life. The recipient of the revealed law of God was His chosen people, to whom the Lord offered to enter with Him into an eternal covenant (v. 10; see Exod 19:3-6), on the condition of the Hebrews fulfilling those commandments and laws which they received from God (and showed them His judgments), during the awesome and glorious Sinai legislation (the greatness of His glory their eyes saw, and the glory of His voice their ears heard).

Sirach 17:13. Their paths are always before Him, they will not be hidden from His eyes. 14. To each people He appointed a leader, 15. and Israel is the portion of the Lord. 16. All their deeds are like the sun before Him, and His eyes are always upon their paths. 17. Their unrighteousness is not hidden from Him, and all their sins are before the Lord. 18. The almsgiving of a person is like a seal with Him, and He will preserve the kindness of a person as the apple of His eye. 19. Then He will rise up and repay them, and their reward will be returned upon their head. 20. But to those who repent He gave the opportunity to return, and He encouraged those who were losing patience. 21. Turn to the Lord and abandon your sins; 22. pray before Him and diminish your stumbling blocks. 23. Return to the Most High and turn away from unrighteousness, and strongly hate abomination. 24. Who will praise the Most High in Hades, instead of those living and praising Him? 25. From the dead, as from one not existing, there is no praise: 26. the living and the well will praise the Lord. 27. How great is the mercy of the Lord and His reconciliation with those who turn to Him! 28. Not everything is possible for a person, 29. for a human being is not immortal. 30. What is brighter than the sun? yet it is darkened. And evil will be pondered by flesh and blood. 31. Behind the powers of the high heavens He Himself keeps watch, and all humans are earth and ashes. 24-31. A human being is not immortal… and all humans are (in the flesh) earth and ashes. While a person lives, they should use the life granted to them to praise their Creator (see vv. 7-8). With bodily death for a person the time of earthly labors and the praise given in them to their Creator ceases: from the dead, as from one not existing on earth, there is no praise to the Creator. The soul of the deceased descends to Sheol, but there it is no longer a place for God-pleasing labors, but rather a place of recompense for life on earth. Indeed, during earthly life, in union with the body, the soul of a person experiences many obstacles from the body to the praise of God (evil will be pondered by flesh and blood), but it has here much time and opportunity to offer to God sincere repentance of their sins, which is well-pleasing and acceptable in the eyes of the Lord. (How great is the mercy of the Lord and His reconciliation with those who turn to Him!).