Prophecy in Sirach

“Then the Creator of all gave me his command, and my Creator chose the spot for my tent. He said, ‘In Jacob make your dwelling, in Israel your inheritance.’” (24:8)

Reading

“Wisdom sings her own praises” (24:1). She speaks of her origin, “From the mouth of the Most High I came forth, and covered the earth like a mist” (24:3), and of her eternity: “Before all ages, from the beginning, he created me, and through all ages I shall not cease to be” (24:9). She looks for a home among the nations and is sent to Israel: “In the holy tent I ministered before him, and so I was established in Zion” (24:10). Then Sirach names her: “All this is the book of the covenant of the Most High God, the Law which Moses commanded us” (24:23). In its first sense Wisdom dwells in Israel through the Law and the Temple.

Fulfilled

St. John uses the same picture of the Word: “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14), literally pitched his tent. The NABRE note on this chapter links its portrait of Wisdom, coming from God yet distinct from him, with John's teaching on the Word. Wisdom's invitation, “Come to me, all who desire me, and be filled with my fruits” (24:19), is echoed by Jesus: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened” (Matthew 11:28). And where Wisdom says, “Those who eat of me will hunger still” (24:21), Jesus says, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger” (John 6:35).

Marian liturgy

The NABRE note says this chapter is used extensively in the Roman liturgy. Its verses have long been read in Masses of the Blessed Virgin, since Mary is the place where Wisdom made her dwelling, the “Seat of Wisdom.” This is a liturgical application in the spiritual sense.

See also

Prophecy in Baruch (Baruch 3:38); Proverbs 8:22–31; Wisdom 7:26.

“Gather all the tribes of Jacob, that they may inherit the land as in days of old.” (36:13, 16)

Reading

In the middle of the book Ben Sira breaks into prayer for his oppressed people: “Come to our aid, O God of the universe, and put all the nations in dread of you!” (36:1–2). He asks God to show his glory as he once showed his holiness: “Thus they will know, as we know, that there is no God but you” (36:5). He prays for the scattered tribes, for Israel, “whom you named your firstborn” (36:17), and for Jerusalem, “your dwelling place” (36:18). The prayer ends: “Thus all the ends of the earth will know that you are the eternal God” (36:22). The NABRE numbering here skips verses 14–15, and its note explains that no text is missing; other Bibles number parts of this prayer differently.

Fulfilled

Jesus chose Twelve to stand for the regathered tribes (Matthew 19:28), and at Pentecost Jews “from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5) heard the Gospel in Jerusalem. The prayer that the nations would know the one God began to be answered as the Gospel went out from Jerusalem.

Unfolding

The gathering is still going on. Revelation sees the sealed from the twelve tribes of Israel and then a multitude “from every nation, race, people, and tongue” (Revelation 7:4–9). The Church prays Ben Sira's words in the Liturgy of the Hours as one of the Old Testament canticles.

“I will now praise the godly, our ancestors, in their own time,” (44:1)

Reading

The book ends with a great hymn to Israel's heroes, from Enoch, who “walked with the LORD and was taken” (44:16), and Noah, “found just and perfect” (44:17), through Abraham, Moses, Aaron, David, Elijah and the prophets, to the high priest of Ben Sira's own day: “Greatest of his family, the glory of his people, was SIMEON the priest, son of Jochanan” (50:1). Their memory is their reward: “Their bodies are buried in peace, but their name lives on and on” (44:14).

Fulfilled

The Letter to the Hebrews writes the same kind of roll call, but reads it as a story of faith in promises not yet received: “Yet all these, though approved because of their faith, did not receive what had been promised” (Hebrews 11:39). Their story was moving toward Christ, “so that without us they should not be made perfect” (11:40). Many of Ben Sira's heroes are types of Christ: Aaron the high priest, David the anointed king, Elijah taken up into heaven.

Future

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1), the Church runs her race. Ben Sira hoped for an enduring name; Revelation promises more, a new name and a place in the city whose gates bear the names of the twelve tribes (Revelation 2:17; 21:12).

“You are destined, it is written, in time to come to put an end to wrath before the day of the LORD, To turn back the hearts of parents toward their children, and to re-establish the tribes of Israel.” (48:10)

Reading

“Until like fire a prophet appeared, his words a flaming furnace” (48:1). Ben Sira recalls how Elijah shut up the heavens and called down fire (48:3), and how he left the earth: “You were taken aloft in a whirlwind, in a chariot with fiery horses” (48:9; 2 Kings 2:11). Then he turns to the future, “it is written,” quoting the last words of the prophets: “Now I am sending to you Elijah the prophet, Before the day of the LORD comes” (Malachi 3:23). Ben Sira adds a task of his own, to re-establish the tribes, which Isaiah gave to the Servant (Isaiah 49:6).

Fulfilled

The angel tells Zechariah that his son John “will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers toward children” (Luke 1:17). Jesus says that Elijah has already come, and “the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist” (Matthew 17:11–13).

Why mystery

Jesus also says that Elijah “will come and restore all things” (Matthew 17:11), and some Fathers expected Elijah himself to return before the end, often identifying him with one of the two witnesses of Revelation 11. The Church has not settled how this is fulfilled, and this site does not guess. The second half of verse 11 is also uncertain: the NABRE note says it has no counterpart in the Hebrew and that the Greek line found there is unlikely to be original.

See also

Prophecy in Malachi; Malachi 3:23–24.

“Come aside to me, you untutored, and take up lodging in the house of instruction;” (51:23)

Reading

The book closes with a hymn of thanks, “I give you thanks, LORD and King” (51:1), from one who was rescued in danger: “I called out: LORD, you are my Father” (51:10). A litany follows in the Hebrew, close to Psalm 136, which the NABRE gives in a note. Then Ben Sira tells how he sought Wisdom from his youth, “When I was young and innocent, I sought wisdom” (51:13), and invites others to her school: “Take her yoke upon your neck” (51:26).

Fulfilled

Jesus speaks as Wisdom herself, inviting all to a lighter yoke: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Matthew 11:29–30). Ben Sira's school of Wisdom becomes the school of Christ. Its last line still holds: “Work at your tasks in due season, and in his own time God will give you your reward” (51:30).