Wisdom of Ben-Sira (Ecclesiasticus)

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. E cclesiasticus is a Moral guide-book to right living. It is a striking example of the Wisdom Literature. In one marked respect it shows an advance upon all previous examples of this literature which have come down to us; the writer is not content with giving a simple proverb, but he expands it by way of emphasizing its point and driving home its force; in the case of an obscure reference this is sometimes helpful; but, generally speaking, it does not enhance the value of what is written; a good proverb will often lose force by explanatory expansion, and its diverse application is in danger of restriction if the range of its content be circumscribed; and this seems not infrequently to be the case in our book.