Sirach — Chapter 47
David, Solomon, and the divided kingdom
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Hebrew–Greek comparison and notes · III. Wisdom
47:1 After him Nathan arose to prophesy in David’s days.
47:2 As fat is set apart from a peace offering, so David was set apart from the sons of Israel.
47:3 He played with lions as with young goats, and with bears as with lambs of the flock.
47:4 In his youth did he not kill a giant and remove reproach from the people, when he raised his hand with a sling stone and brought down Goliath’s pride?
47:5 For he called upon the Lord Most High, and He put strength in his right hand to remove a mighty warrior and raise the horn of His people.
47:6 Thus they glorified him with tens of thousands and praised him with blessings of the Lord when a crown of glory was brought to him.
47:7 For he destroyed enemies all around and reduced his Philistine adversaries to nothing; he shattered their horn to this day.
47:8 In every deed he gave thanks to the Holy Most High with a word of glory. With his whole heart he sang hymns and loved the One who made him.
47:9 He stationed psalm singers before the altar, to sweeten the melodies with their sound.
47:10 He gave festivals splendor and adorned the appointed seasons to their completion, while they praised His holy name and made the sanctuary resound from early morning.
47:11 The Lord took away his sins, raised his horn forever, and gave him a covenant of kings and a throne of glory in Israel.
47:12 After him arose a knowledgeable son, who because of him rested in spacious prosperity.
47:13 Solomon reigned in days of peace; God gave him rest all around, so that he might establish a house for His name and prepare a sanctuary forever.
47:14 How wise you became in your youth! You were filled with understanding like a river.
47:15 Your soul covered the earth, and you filled it with comparisons containing riddles.
47:16 Your name reached distant islands, and you were loved for your peace.
47:17 Countries marveled at you for songs, proverbs, comparisons, and interpretations.
47:18 In the name of the Lord God, who is called the God of Israel, you gathered gold like tin and multiplied silver like lead.
47:19 You bent your loins toward women and were brought under power in your body.
47:20 You put a blemish upon your glory and profaned your offspring, bringing wrath upon your children and anguish because of your folly,
47:21 so that the dominion became divided and a disobedient kingdom began from Ephraim.
47:22 But the Lord will never abandon His mercy or let any of His words fail. He will never wipe out His chosen one’s descendants or remove the offspring of the one who loved Him. He gave Jacob a remnant, and David a root from him.
47:23 Solomon rested with his fathers and left after him, from his offspring, the people’s foolishness: Rehoboam, deficient in understanding, who made the people revolt through his counsel.
47:24 There was also Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made Israel sin and gave Ephraim a path of sin. Their sins multiplied exceedingly, so that they were removed from their land.
47:25 They sought out every kind of wickedness, until vengeance came upon them.
Source and editorial notes
Working translation preserved from the recovered manuscript of 8 September 2026. Declared source: Septuaginta, Rahlfs–Hanhart, 2006, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, publisher’s Greek main text. Independent linguistic and critical-apparatus review remains outstanding. Source-access and reception claims in the inherited notes have not been freshly revalidated. Chapter and section headings are editorial.
The translator’s prologue is separate from the 51 chapters. Its eight source units map to publisher labels 1, 1a–1g; main-text 1:1 maps to 1h. Source 5:15 includes material often numbered 6:1, so chapter 6 begins at 6:2. Source label gaps are preserved; no text is invented.
47:2 Σωτήριον here denotes the sacrificial offering; the analogy concerns the reserved fat.
47:5 The horn is the source’s image of strength and is retained.
47:6 “Tens of thousands” retains the numerical expression without supplying the full words of a song from another book.
47:12 “Because of him” is not expanded into a further explanation of David’s achievements; “spacious prosperity” renders πλατυσμός.
47:15 “Your soul,” not “your wisdom,” is the source’s subject. “It” supplies the earth as the object of the second clause.
47:18 The divine-name introduction is present in this Greek verse and is retained.
47:20 The passive κατανυγῆναι lacks an explicit subject here; “anguish” retains its effect without choosing an unexpressed person who felt it.
47:22 The final “from him” remains as the Greek’s pronoun rather than being replaced by a genealogical explanation. All four emphatic negatives are preserved.
47:23 “The people’s foolishness” is an appositional description in this text; it is not corrected to a statement that the people themselves became foolish.
47:25 The final Greek subjunctive views the arrival as the endpoint of the preceding pursuit; English uses the narrative past.